The Luckiest
by Duartay
Summary: Korra and Asami have returned from the Spirit World, finally able to tell their friends about their journey and their newfound love. But a dimensional traveler from another world complicates things. Especially since the brutal militant group chasing him have now set their sights on this new world. M for Language, Violence, etc. Updated as often as I can manage. Reviews appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

Bright light surrounded them. But Korra and Asami didn't seem to notice. They continued to stare into each other's eyes. It'd been two weeks since they left for the Spirit World and they were finally ready to return home. A lot had happened in those two weeks, memories locked in their minds forever.

The light began to settle and the couple began to walk out of the portal, hand in hand, never breaking eye contact. Asami leaned down and kissed Korra on the cheek. Korra blushed and returned the kiss to Asami's lips.

"Welcome back." Korra said.

"It's good to be back," Asami replied.

"As much I would have loved to stay there with you forever, the world needs us."

"Yes. But, maybe we'll luck out and finally get some rest."

"Don't jinx it yet," Korra replied with a playful shove. "We just got here."

They decided to go to Air Temple Island to catch up with everyone else. Leaving what used to be Spirit Vine Park around mid-afternoon, they walked through the desolate city streets. In the distance, they heard the sounds of construction equipment.

"At least the clean up is underway," Asami pointed out.

"Great, a little less on our plate is always a good thing."

They arrived at Air Temple Island later that evening.

"Guess who's back?" Korra shouted as she entered the front door, Asami on her heels.

"KORRA!" a very excited Ikki yelled as she flung herself at the Avatar. Meelo came speeding in and latched himself onto Korra as well.

"What am I? Chopped Badgermole Liver?" Asami asked, only to be barraged by the two younger airbenders a second later.

"How was the Spirit World?" Ikki asked.

Korra told the airbenders about the Spirit World, the sights, the smells, the sounds. Ikki and Meelo sat with eyes wide as they listened. When Korra was finished telling her tale, she asked, "Where's the rest of the family?"

"Tenzin and Jinora are meeting with President Raiko to talk about reconstruction plans. They should be back shortly."

Korra turned to see Pema, holding Rohan in her right arm. After exchanging hugs, they sat down for tea. About an hour passed before Tenzin and Jinora came home. After hugs and small talk, Tenzin filled Korra and Asami in on what happened during their two week absence.

"The expansion plans will be costly and will probably require new technology to complete, which is where Future Industries will come in to play. Your technology centers are going to have to step up big time in order to pull this off, Asami."

"I'll make sure they're working at maximum efficiency," Asami replied.

"Great. President Raiko will be happy to hear that. As for the displaced, that's where things get complicated. Some people can move back in the suburbs, but those that lived in the downtown area won't be able go home. We've asked that those that lived in the downtown area find temporary lodging with friends or family, but if that's not an option, the refugee camps are being converted into functioning temporary cities by Varrick and Zhu Li."

"They're already back from their honeymoon?" Korra asked.

"They agreed to hold it off until everything was resolved."

"Wow, I've gotta admit, Varrick has really changed. For the better of course."

"A sentiment I echo," Tenzin said. "Well Korra, we have your room in order."

"Actually, I'm going to be moving in with Asami. We talked about this a lot in the Spirit World and she said it's alright with her."

"Well, I suppose it is time you get to be somewhere besides Air Temple Island."

"Thanks for understanding Tenzin." Korra said as she hugged her mentor.

After the ferry docked, Korra and Asami walked over to the parking lot, the Satomobile that drove them to the portal waited to take them home.

"So when are we going to tell him? About us?" Asami asked, a sight worry in her voice.

"We'd better give it some time. Things are still pretty heated around here. We shouldn't create any unnecessary drama."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

"When all of this settles down, we'll tell them. Let's just try to calm everything else down first," Korra said as she moved in to kiss Asami, who returned the kiss and started up the Satomobile. Little did they know however, that their greatest challenge was about to literally fall out of the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

Korra awoke the next morning, looking over to see the raven-haired beauty to her left still fast asleep. She snuggled in close and nuzzled her nose against her lover's. Asami woke slowly.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"Good morning," Asami replied. "I'm surprised your up before me. What time is it?"

Korra leaned over to check the clock. "About 9 in the morning."

"Well, we better get started then," Asami said, pulling Korra in for a good morning kiss.

The two got dressed and headed down to Asami's office. Asami began to sort through the mountain of mail on her desk.

"Varrick invited us out to the camp he's working on at 3 this afternoon to catch us up." Asami said.

"Great! Even after talking to Tenzin, seeing everything firsthand will be helpful."

"We'll pick up Mako and Bolin on the way. They want to meet us for lunch around noon."

"I'm free." Korra replied nonchalantly.

"I know you are, silly." Asami replied with a giggle.

Asami's mail mostly consisted of plans for the reconstruction effort, plans that Varrick had sketched up, condolence letters about her father, and an invitation to the christening of the United States of the Earth Republic, which was to be held in three weeks time in Ba Sing Se, signed by former Prince Wu with a note that said, Hope to see you there.

By 11:45, Korra and Asami had straightened up the mansion, sorted the mail, gone over some plans and were ready to drive to meet Mako and Bolin. They got in the Satomobile and drove to the restaurant. Mako and Bolin had already been seated by the time Asami and Korra arrived.

"It's great to see you guys!" Bolin said, noticing the pair walk in first. They hugged their friends and sat down. The group chatted about the past two weeks, Mako's physical rehab for his arm, Bolin's work on the reconstruction and aid for the refugees, and of course, Korra and Asami's vacation.

"Where's Opal?" Asami asked.

"She's back in Zoufu," Bolin replied. "Family matters to sort out. She sends her best."

Asami checked her pocket watch. 2:35. "We have to meet Varrick out at the refugee camp where he's working. You guys interested in coming with us?"

"Sounds good with me," Bolin said, "What about you Mako?"

"I have to be back in town for rehab at 8, but until then I'm free."

"Awesome. Let's get going." Asami said.

They paid for their meal, and took off for the campsite. It was about a 20 minute drive, leaving plenty of time for the Satomobile's occupants to talk. They were within 2 miles of the camp when Mako spoke up.

"There's something different about you guys. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something tells me that trip to the Spirit World was a little more for you guys than your letting on."

Korra glanced at Asami from the passenger seat. Asami gave a "might as well" look from the driver's seat.

"Well you see," Korra began, "Asami and I are…"

"LOOK OUT!" Bolin shouted from the back seat. Asami looked to see what was happening, but she couldn't react fast enough. A body landed on top of the car, causing Asami to lose control. The Satomobile spun as Asami slammed on the brakes. The car stopped and the passengers struggled to regain their breath.

No one inside the car was hurt, but all eyes immediately darted to the unconscious form that lied in the road. Asami and Korra were the first out of the car, followed by Mako, then Bolin. The four sprinted to the body each hoping that the person wasn't dead. Just as they got to him, the man started to move.

"Thank Spirits!" Asami said.

"Looks like he's the luckiest person on the planet. He doesn't have any signs of significant injury." Mako said.

The man, who was slightly younger than the group, was wearing unfamiliar clothing. Rough blue pants, a black shirt with a triangle and two lines, one white, the other rainbow colored coming out of either side, with the words PINK FLOYD across the top. His hat, which was about 5 feet away from him, was flat on top and made of a tightly woven fabric. His shoes looked different than anything they'd seen.

The man began to wake up.

"Hey, are you alright?" Mako asked.

"I think so…" the man replied, standing up slowly and brushing off his legs. He placed his cap back on his head, then turned to face Team Avatar.

"Where am I exactly?" he asked dryly.

"You're about 2 miles from a refugee camp north of Republic City." Bolin replied.

"Where the hell is Republic City?"

"Uh… it's in the United Republic."

"Where is that in relation to The United States?"

"The United States of the Earth Republic hasn't been formed yet. The ceremony isn't for another 3 weeks." Asami said.

"No, no. The United States of America?" the man asked frantically, met only with confused faces.

"What's with you? You act as if I'm some sort of alien or something."

The group stood in silence for a moment, then the man suddenly realized something.

"Holy shit. It worked."

"What worked?" Korra asked, with a nervous tone of voice.

"Oh my God! It really worked!"

"What worked?" Korra asked with more intent.

"You don't understand what just happened. If all that you're telling me is true, then I've just become the first successful dimensional traveler."


	3. Chapter 3

"What do you mean dimensional traveler?" Bolin asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. I come from a different world. Where I'm from, there's no United Republic, no Earth States, hell, I'm not even sure what half of that means, but now…" he paused, concern suddenly sweeping over his face.

"What is it?" Korra asked.

The man looked up in the sky. Team Avatar looked up to see an orange circle floating in the sky. Explosions could suddenly be heard coming from the hole.

"Shit, where's my bag?" he asked.

He quickly looked around and made some gestures and murmurs about angles and velocity. He snapped his fingers and proceeded to slide down the hill on the side of the road.

"Found it!" he exclaimed, holding up a large black over-the-shoulder duffel bag. He pulled out an object about the size of a pomegranate and turned to the crew, standing at the top of the hill.

"Which of you is the best throw?" the man asked.

"I'll do it." Mako said. The man tossed the object to Mako. As he examined the object, Mako couldn't understand what kind of device it was. It was green and had a pin holding in a trigger device.

"Pull the pin out and throw it into the portal!" the man yelled as he began to make his way up the hill again. Mako did as he was instructed, hearing a distinct click as he threw the object into the portal. A shout, followed by an explosion filled their ears as the portal quickly closed.

They stared in shock at the sky where the portal had been. The man walked up the hill and stood next to the group. Mako turned to the man.

"Did that… you know, kill anyone?"

"Based on the muffled sound of the shouting and the angle and velocity that you threw the grenade, at best, one guy has a piece of shrapnel in his leg, but nothing too serious."

They continued to stare at him, there mouths agape. The man pulled another grenade out of his bag and began to explain how they worked. "With the pin removed, there is nothing holding the lever in position, which means there is nothing holding the spring-loaded striker up. The spring throws the striker down against the percussion cap. The impact ignites the cap, creating a small spark.

"The spark ignites a slow-burning material in the fuze. In about four seconds, the delay material burns all the way through.

"The end of the delay element is connected to the detonator, a capsule filled with more combustible material. The burning material at the end of the delay ignites the material in the detonator, setting off an explosion inside the grenade.

"The explosion ignites the explosive material around the sides of the grenade, creating a much larger explosion that blows the grenade apart.

"Pieces of metal from the outer casing fly outward at great speed, imbedding in anybody and anything within range. Essentially, big boom, lots of damage. Perfect for fighting off a large number of hostiles."

Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere with the group of slack-jawed persons before him, he extended his hand.

"Jake Wells," he said.

Finally snapping out of her trance, Korra extended her hand and returned the handshake. Jake's grip was firm, a solid shake.

"I'm Korra, this is Mako, his brother Bolin, and this is Asami."

"Not to keen on surnames here?"

"Most people don't really have one. Asami's is Sato."

"Asami Sato. Japanese for Morning Beauty. The name fits you."

"Well… Thank you." Asami replied with a slight blush. Korra shot a glance at Jake, something he immediately picked up on.

"What's Japanese?" Bolin asked.

"There is a country back in my world called Japan. Japanese, their language is very descriptive and very beautiful to listen to. The same goes for Chinese."

"I'll take your word for it." Bolin replied with a chuckle.

"Well, I suppose I'm stuck here for a while." Jake said. "With the portal out of commission, and the fact that it was an enormous console to begin with, I might just be stuck here indefinitely."

"I happen to run a corporation that is at the forefront of science. How difficult could it be. We already have portals here, although they're spirit portals." Asami said.

"Mine's a bit more complex than you might think. Imagine being able to input some numbers into a computer and being able to transport to any dimension you want. Transporting yourself into the world of your favorite fictional story, into a planet 7000 years in the future so advanced, they'd be surprised it took us so long to invent this kind of technology. You could go anywhere!"

Asami stared back at him. "Ya… You kind of got me there. Even with all the progress we've made, that tech is a long shot for at least another 100 years."

"For the meantime, since I'm stuck here, I suppose I should get to know this place. What should I know?" Jake asked.

"Come with us to the refugee camp, we'll tell you all you need to know." Korra said.

"Sounds like a plan." Jake said as the group migrated back to the Satomobile. Asami fired up the engine and they drove on.


	4. Chapter 4

As the Satomobile pulled into the refugee camp, Varrick had just emerged from the central tent. He saw the five occupants exit the vehicle, his eyes immediately drawn to the stranger. He'd been many places around the world but had never seen anyone quite as peculiar as this new person. He held his judgements to himself and approached the group.

"Look, if you guys keep adding members to your team, I'm gonna have to start taxing the ground you walk on." he joked.

"And if you keep up the sarcasm, I might just have to pay your medical bills. It'd be worth it." Korra shot back. "How's married life?"

"Worth living, let me tell you. I don't think I've been happier in my entire life. Same goes for Zhu Li."

"Where is she?" Bolin asked.

"She's off helping some of the newer folks settle in. It almost pains me to see the population of this one camp grow. The others are filling up so fast that they flock here. The problem is, we're already overstocked here. The population in this camp alone is close to 750."

"Geez, if there's anything you need, just send me a line and I can ship it over." Asami said.

"Thanks Asami, I've been busting my ass trying to get some other friends of mine in the industry to help, but those jerks are only obsessed with the bottom line." Varrick glanced over at Jake. "So who's the new guy?"

"Jake Wells." Jake said, extending his hand.

"Iknik Blackstone Varrick, but you can just call me Varrick. Everyone else does." Varrick replied, returning the handshake.

"Pleasure to meet you Varrick. As to who I am, well, it's a bit complicated to explain. I'd love to tell all of you."

"Well why don't we step into the tent and you can tell us all about it." Varrick suggested.

The group walked in and took seats on the floor of the tent. Jake sat at the head of the table and began to tell his story.

"Where I come from, there's a lot of chaos. About 4 years ago, an extremist group calling themselves The Panacea staged a violent coup in my home country, the United States of America. Millions of people died, including my parents and my younger brother.

"The word panacea means a solution or a remedy for difficulty or disease. The "disease" they sought to eradicate was inequality. But they believed everyone that didn't convert to their ideas about science, religion, social behavior, should all be killed, forming their own "master human race", where freedom of expression was banned, forming this Marxist style utopia, where no one was offended by anything. They believed in censorship of contrary opinion, they executed civilians in the streets for the most mundane of crimes.

One man was executed after looking at a woman wrong, a subjective moral crime at best. Under the old system, he might have gotten a slap in the face from the woman if it really bothered her, but after Panacea came into power, he had his eyeballs ripped from his skull, then was beheaded."

The group sat in shocked silence. Bolin raised his hand.

"What is Marxist exactly?" he asked sheepishly.

"It's a political theory. The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers to form the basis for the theory and practice of communism.

Communism, essentially, is advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Communism embraced a revolutionary ideology in which the state would wither away after the overthrow of the capitalist system. In practice, however, the state grew to control all aspects of communist society."

"So essentially, it's good in theory, but could never be effective in practice." Korra said.

"Exactly. The Panacea is run by a man named Dimitri Volkov. His grandfather was a ranking official in the old USSR, which was essentially the largest communist state in the world, until its collapse about 45 years ago, the early 1990's where I'm from."

"What year was it when you left?" Mako asked.

"2036." Jake responded. "And if I may ask, what year is it here?"

"174 AG." Varrick said.

"The AG standing for?"

"The Airbender Genocide. It was a major turning point in the history of this world." Korra said.

"I'm sorry… Did you say air-bender?" Jake replied, a confused look on his face.

"Yeah. Airbender… Oh yeah, that was one of the things we were going to tell you about. People have the ability to bend one of the four elements, Water, Earth, Fire and Air. Unless you're the Avatar, then you have the special ability to master all four." Korra explained.

"That would be you, wouldn't it, Avatar Korra?" Jake said.

Korra sat frozen for a moment, caught off guard.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"One of my special abilities is an advanced ability to perceive things. The power of deduction. It's not something you're blessed with, per say, it's something that I've worked on for years. I can tell so much about a person before I ever talk to them."

"Really? I'm not so sure." Mako said.

"You should know Mako, you're a detective after all." Jake said.

Mako sat in silence, his eyebrow raised. Lin had promoted him to detective only 3 days before. How did Jake know that? Almost seeming to read Mako's mind, Jake replied.

"You've been examining me since the moment you met me. You're using the same processes I'm using. The trouble for you is, I'm faster. I've spent the past eight years of my life working on this practice."

Mako simply shook this off. Whatever, he thought to himself. With that out of the way, Jake continued.

"One of my primary concerns is that, now that our labs have fallen, Panacea is going to try experimenting with this portal technology."

"Portal technology that Mako hit with that grenade." Bolin pointed out.

"He only hit the generators that powered the portal. The vast network of computers that calculated the conditions that were needed were in the next room. The information is still there."

"Oh Spirits," Korra said. "So what you're saying is,"

"Yes," Jake replied. "It's entirely possible that the Panacea is reverse engineering the technology we had in that laboratory right now in an effort to come to this world."

"But why this world? I would imagine circumstances that opened the portal to this world would be very difficult to replicate." Asami said.

"The information is stored within those computers I mentioned. It would be very difficult for them, but not impossible. The coordinates are in the system. I got lucky that entered the right coordinates to come here. It's very complicated mathematics, some equations take up a full sheet of paper just to come up with ballpark coordinates. The fact that I entered the exact coordinates was about the equivalent of knocking a ball off a tee at 500 feet blindfolded."

"So they're just going to copy off of your work? What a bunch of jerks." Bolin commented.

"That's the understatement of the century." Jake replied, a serious tone in his voice.

Meanwhile, back in Jake's world, in a laboratory in the former state of Washington, three men were surveying the damage. Two were members of the Panacea, the third man was a scientist, held down on his knees at gunpoint. One of the Panacea goons was yelling at him in Russian.

"Где зайти мальчик?(Gde zayti mal'chik? Where did the boy go?)" the man yelled.

"I don't speak Russian!" the scientist said, on the verge of tears.

"Скажи мне, где он, или я убью тебя! (Skazhi mne, gde on, ili ya ub'yu tebya! Tell me where he is or I'll fucking kill you!)"

"He doesn't speak Russian you incompetent moron." said a low, gravely voice with a thick Russian accent. The three men looked up, fear on all of their faces. They were staring into the dark eyes of Dimitri Volkov.

"Volkov?" the scientist stuttered. "I didn't think you got your hands dirty with your work."

"Shut up," Volkov hollered, grabbing the scientist by his collar and pinning him to the wall, "Where is Wells?"

"I don't know! It's entirely possible he's stuck in inter-dimensional space, if he's even alive! The odds of him finding an alternate dimension are almost none!"

"Well my men saw that he succeeded."

"Then he's the luckiest S.O.B on the planet. Really, I can't help you! My mind isn't as powerful as Jake's! Even if I could decode where those coordinates lead, there's no way I have the engineering abilities to bring the machine back online!"

Dimitri dropped the shaking scientist to the ground. He walked around the destroyed laboratory. The scientist was sobbing to himself.

"You know what? You're right," Dimitri said after a moment. "I don't need you. I have plenty of engineers that are willing to help."

"If it means anything, I never liked Wells anyway. I always thought he lacked the necessary social skills to function in a group."

"All of that is… inadequate now," Dimitri smiled, pulling out his gun.

"NO! PLE…" The scientist was cut off as Dimitri shot him. He slumped to the floor, a bullet hole in his head.

"Gather those coordinates and get all available engineers on this immediately. We're going after Wells. He knows of our plans."


	5. Chapter 5

It was almost dusk by the time everyone arrived back in Republic City. Asami dropped off Mako and Bolin at the house they were staying with their grandmother. That left Korra, Asami, and the stranger, Jake Wells.

"If you need anywhere to stay, I can talk to Tenzin and see if you can stay on Air Temple Island," Korra suggested.

"Thanks," Jake said, a slight hint of indifference in his voice.

"Are you alright?" Asami asked.

"No, to be frank," Jake snapped back, "I've just lost everything I've ever known and everyone I've ever loved to a psycho maniac, I'm stuck in a world I've never been in, where I don't know anybody, and you're asking me what's wrong? I would have thought it'd be pretty fucking obvious!"

The occupants of the car sat in silence for a moment. Asami drove with tears in her eyes. Korra reached out and grabbed her hand. They exchanged a glance.

"Look… I'm sorry," Jake said, eyes still focused out the window. "I don't do well in any kind of social situation, especially when I'm under stress. It's part of the reason my team resented me so much."

"What do you mean?" Korra asked.

"A problem a lot of us geniuses have is that we expect everyone else to understand what we're talking about. Unfortunately, that's not the case, which is why a lot of geniuses are anti-social. Not everyone gets where they're coming from. They come off as bratty, pretentious, self-obsessed, narcissists.

"I never had many friends when I was young. They all hated me. When the Panacea took over and installed their dictatorship, none of that mattered anymore. There were bigger issues than whether or not someone rubbed you the wrong way. Or so I thought.

"It's something that's going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Yesterday, we were preparing the portal machine for a test. It's purpose was to evacuate citizens that were in danger of being killed or thrown into poverty by the Panacea. About midway through the day, one of the scientists, an asshole by the name of Mike Svenson, just stops working. So I say, 'Mike, why'd you stop?' He says, 'Jake, why the hell are we doing this?'

"I was taken aback by this because I would have thought it was obvious. The West Coast of the United States hadn't been taken over by the Panacea yet. There were resistance groups that came together to form a coalition of sorts. But we found out they were mounting an offensive that the coalition wouldn't be able to handle. So we had to come up with an alternate plan.

"The portal had always been a plan and we were in the process of building it. But after we heard about the Panacea's advance, we had to finish it even faster than we had initially anticipated.

"So Mike finally says, 'Why are we busy helping these people when we could be helping ourselves?' I'll admit I was a bit appalled by this.

"I must have yelled at the motherfucker for 20 minutes about how he had to think of someone other than himself. We were talking about millions of people here. He shouldn't have been thinking about himself.

"Then he did something that he'd never done before. He tried to throw a punch at me. I grabbed his arm, twisted it around, and pinned him against the wall. I let him go and he crumbled to the ground.

"He gets up, runs out, and we get back to work. Later that night, around 11:30, I get a text message from Svenson. It just says, It All Ends Tonight."

He handed a small device to Korra. It's about the size of her hand. She examined it. It lit up and displays the message that Jake had mentioned. There in front of her were the words, It All Ends Tonight. She hands the device back to Jake, not wanting to interrupt his story.

"I didn't think he had the balls to do it… Within 15 minutes, the Panacea is knocking at our front door. They go in guns blazing, killing my team left and right. Myself and a few others were trying to get the portal back online. The engineers were setting it up and I was inputing numbers into the computer like a man possessed.

"Finally, one of the guys says, 'We got a hit boss!' There were seven of us in that room. Suddenly, the door bursts in, gunshots ring out, I backed up and fell into the portal. I…" Jake's speech began to muffle, the realization of what happened finally setting in. Tears were forming in his eyes.

"I was so close to death. So many of my team, the closest things to friends I had, are either dead or awaiting execution. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be alive."

Jake's voice became incredibly distant as he finished. Korra turned to look at him, seated in the back seat, staring out the window with seemingly empty eyes. She turned back to Asami.

"Would it just be easier for tonight if he crashed at your place. Just for tonight?" she asked.

Asami thought for a moment.

"I suppose it would be alright." she said.

The rest of the drive was eerily silent. By the time they pulled up to the Sato Mansion, it was getting dark outside. It was 8:45. Asami turned to Jake.

"For the sake of convenience, you can stay at my place tonight." she said.

"Thank you. I owe you a lot."

"Don't worry. You've been through a lot in the past few hours. It's the least I can do. Feel free to stay here as long as you need."

"Thanks."

They went inside, set Jake up in the guest bedroom, and reconvened in the kitchen. Jake was staring out the large window, which had a brilliant view of Republic City. He was sipping on a cup of tea that Asami had made for him. Damn, he thought with a slight chuckle, I really am lucky.

Korra walked into the kitchen, noticing the newcomer admiring the view. Seeing the fresh pot of tea, she poured herself a cup.

"It's beautiful isn't it." she said.

"One view I could never get used to… I suppose that's a good thing." he said, eyes still fixated on the view. "I hope I'm not too much of a bother to you guys. I know this is a lot to take on all at once."

"Hey, believe it or not, I've handled much worse than a stranger falling out of the sky."

"Let's hope you don't have to deal with the Panacea. That will blow your perception of evil sky high."

"Even worse than a crazed madman that tries to eliminate bending all together? Even worse than a terrorist group that assassinated the Earth Queen in order to topple the nations in the name of chaos? Even worse than a lunatic that tried to harness the power of dark spirits? Even worse than a woman going drunk with power and developing the weapon whose explosion was so powerful that made that portal?"

"Like I said, really blows the idea of evil out of the water. That weapon that made that portal is child's play compared to the kind of destruction our planet made. Child's play, because that entire city as well as anywhere within a 10 mile radius of it is completely obliterated. Everywhere within 200 miles is uninhabitable for thousands of years…

"What's scarier is that the Panacea has that technology. They've already scorched the earth with it, and something tells me they'll be more than happy to have a brand new world to fuck up."

Korra stared at Jake for a moment. He looked exhausted, not just from the events of the day, but from months of zealous work. His eyes were droopy, as if he hadn't slept in months. Judging by all of the events he described, he probably hadn't. He was shaking ever so slightly, as if he hadn't relaxed in a very long time.

"Well, try to get some sleep. We'll introduce you to everyone tomorrow."

"Thank you very much for letting me stay here. I really do owe you a lot. My life, really."

"Don't mention it."

With that, they bid each other goodnight. But Jake found it difficult to fall asleep. For him, the question was not if the Panacea was going to be able to reverse engineer the portal. It was a matter of when.


	6. Chapter 6

A few days had passed since Jake arrived in Republic City. He had taken his new situation in stride, using it as an opportunity to get some much needed rest. After meeting Tenzin and his family, Lin Beifong, and several other people, Jake took an afternoon off at Asami's mansion. He spent his time reading the history of the world he was now living in. (Coincidentally and conveniently, their written language was Chinese, which Jake spoke fluently)

One evening, as Jake sat at dinner with Korra and Asami, enjoying a meal of dumplings and tea, Asami spoke up.

"So, one thing has been troubling me since you came here."

"What is it?" Jake responded after finishing the dumpling he was working on.

"You must have fallen 30 feet onto a speeding car moving 35 miles an hour and didn't sustain any injuries. How?"

"I've been wondering that same thing. My theory is a little long-winded, but here's the short version.

"When traveling through inter-dimensional space, your molecules are trapped in a sort of middle ground. They haven't arrived in the new dimension, but they've left the old dimension. There's a sort of inter-dimensional drag, a net of some kind. It wasn't until I was out of the range of it, after you hit me, I was knocked out of this 'net' of sorts. That's just my theory. It's got no scientific basis to back it up."

"It's interesting to say the least," Korra chimed in. "I'm not so into the whole science thing myself, but it makes sense. I can't think of any other way it would be possible."

"So let me ask the two of you something completely different." Jake said.

Korra and Asami exchanged looks.

"What is it?" Asami asked.

"When are you going to tell everyone else that you're dating?"

The two girls instantly turned red, looks of shock plastered to their faces.

"I may not be the best at conveying emotion," Jake said, "but I can certainly tell when it's there. You two haven't left each other's side since the moment I met you."

Korra and Asami were still to dumfounded to speak. Were they really that obvious?

Seemingly reading their expressions, Jake continued.

"That said, I think I'm the only the one that's figured it out. My guess is that Mako is the only suspicious one, but he's keeping his distance in order to see if his theory is correct. Give that guy credit where it's due, he's a genius, even if he doesn't quite realize it."

"I… I suppose we're just… Um…" Korra stammered.

"Figuring everything out." Asami chimed in.

"Fair enough," Jake said, clearing his place at the table. "There's no shame in taking anything slow. Patience is a virtue, as they say."

"I've… never heard that expression before," Korra said.

Jake paused for a moment.

"Damn it. I'm gonna have to come up with a whole new list of references and expressions, aren't I?" he mumbled to himself, causing Korra to giggle.

"Hey, I had a ton of good ones. How about this one? A wise philosopher by the name of Virgil once said, 'Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance.'"

"That's the story of my life!" Korra said with a smirk on her face. "Where was that four years ago?"

"What happened four years ago?" Jake asked.

Korra's mood suddenly got very melancholy. She sighed, looking down at the table. Asami moved her had to Korra's shoulder.

"Do you remember that terrorist group I mentioned the other night?"

Jake nodded.

"Well, they tried to kill me with this poison. It nearly crippled me permanently. I remember just feeling so alone, even though everyone was around me, wanting to help. I guess I was too blind to see it. It's a decision I made, to shut everyone out, that's haunted me ever since."

"Well, here's another one for you. 'All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.'"

"Who said that?"

"A cartoonist by the name of Walt Disney."

"Well Mr. Disney was a wise man."

"He certainly was. Goodnight you two."

Jake then cleaned up his dishes and went off to bed. Korra and Asami sat in the dining room for a while.

"He's good," Asami said after a moment, leaning back in her chair.

"Ya. I'll give it to him, he's very observant."

"It really makes you wonder what life was like in his world. That people are that smart. He knows more things then any person that's ever lived in our world."

"I'd love to see him take on Wan Shi Tong. Jinora bested him once, so I'd love to see Jake take him on."

"I'll throw down a thousand yuan if you do," Asami joked.

"You're on!" The girls sat and laughed for a moment.

"'A kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.'" Korra said. "Huh."

"What?" Asami asked.

"I'm just thinking about how true that is. I mean, if I didn't get poisoned by the Red Lotus, I wouldn't have taken all that time off."

"What's your point?" Asami questioned sternly, "You know how much you being gone affected all of us… Affected me. I couldn't stand to watch you suffer. The thought that you couldn't take all of the things that happened to you scared me. Thinking that you could have… You could have taken your own life and I wouldn't know about it…" Asami started crying as she finished.

Korra pulled her into a hug.

"I would never do something like that to you. You know that. I love you too much to do that to you." Korra held Asami's head and looked into her eyes. "During that time I spent wandering, I kept your letters with me. They kept me grounded. They gave me what I needed the most. Hope. It wasn't until I got your letters that I realized what I had. I had the most amazing woman in the world as my best friend. As time went on, I realized that you were more than just a friend to me. I realized that I loved you, Asami. I realized that I couldn't live without you. You were my foundation. You were, you are the one thing that completes me."

Korra pulled Asami close to her. Asami squeezed Korra as hard as she could.

"I'm never letting go, Korra."

"I couldn't be happier. C'mon let's go to bed."

Concurrently in Jake's lab, engineers were hard at work repairing the portal apparatus. Dimitri Volkov stood in the computer room, listening to a young Panacea computer technician explain the situation.

"The coordinates he managed to enter were spot on for a particular hit. From the eyewitness accounts of the troops, the world is very similar in its chemical and biological composition. Carbon based life and civilization appear to exist. It's unknown at this time how advanced these civilizations are, but from what the testimony states, they sounded like they speak English. Wells was conversing with them before the grenade was thrown throughout the portal."

"See if you can lower the portal," Dimitri said, "The reports also specified that it was about 10 meters off the ground. It amazes me that he didn't get killed by that car."

"Our theoretical physics team has been stumped by that. So far, they've only offered the "dimensional net" hypothesis, but it could take them a while to figure it out."

"It will all come it time. How much longer until the portal is open?"

As if on cue, the portal shot open, a flash of blue light filling the room. Dimitri and the technician rushed into the room, seeing the road where Jake first met Korra and the others. Dimitri started to chuckle, a sneer forming on his face.

"Save these coordinates and send them to the team at the Large Portal Complex and tell the army to mobilize. We go in tomorrow."


	7. Chapter 7

"Thomas Paine, whom I consider to be one of the best philosophers that ever lived in my world, once said, 'I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.' Ladies and gentlemen of the new United States of the Earth Republic, what you are doing here tonight, by making this conscious choice to say, 'We are ready for a system of government that empowers the people, the electorate that will put good men and women into positions of power and can hold them accountable for their actions. We are ready to take a new step in combating trouble in our time in order to secure peace for our children."

Thunderous applause rose from the crowd as Jake paused to catch his breath. The delegates from each state, as well as the ordinary citizens who were invited to speak their mind, tell their stories, and share their ideas on how the new nation's government was to be established, stood up and clapped at what Jake was saying.

"It is our duty to establish democracy, not because it is good, but because it is necessary. For too long, the needs of the ordinary citizen have been swept under the rug. I've only been here a short time, but what I've seen is unprecedented. The rich and the poor coming together to create a fair and equal system that encourages everyone to be an active participant is something that never happened in my world.

"That was something that seemed strange to me, because in that system where everyone helps everyone, regardless of your background, your nationality, your wealth, everyone benefits. The rich get richer, but so do the poor. Then eventually the poor become the middle class, and at that point, the scale keeps moving up.

"But, I'm not here to tell you how to run your government, that's your job. I'm here to offer suggestions on how to create a system that benefits everyone to its fullest capability.

"I want to thank everyone for their hospitality since I arrived here a few weeks ago. How's this for culture shock? Coming into a world where not only do people speak one language but write another, but also have the ability to bend the elements." Laughter came from the crowd.

"I'm being serious," Jake continued with a chuckle and a smirk. "To all of the benders here in the audience and the millions listening around the world through the magic of radio, don't take your gift for granted. Okay? Because I would have payed upwards of a million yuans just to hit the irritating kid next to me in math class with a pebble." The audience continued to laugh uncontrollably.

"Then I would have lit my teacher's dress on fire, drenched her to put it out, then air dry her to the amusement of my peers." At their private table, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin were all red in the face from laughing so hard.

"But in all seriousness ladies and gentlemen, I would encourage each and everyone of the delegates to strive for a system that makes everyone equal. However, don't use that as a platform to push an agenda. You can change laws, not people. Not everyone will agree with you, no one should be forced to agree with you. Keep an open mind, the best things in life come to those who listen.

"Now, I know I've kept you away from the buffet for far too long. Thank you very much and have a great evening."

Applause roared from the crowd as Jake stepped away from the microphone. He made his way through the tables, shaking hands as he went, to Team Avatar's table. A band struck up a song as Jake took his seat.

"Excellent speech." Asami said, "You have quite the way with words."

"Thanks, I suppose it helps that I've been giving them professionally since I was 15."

The remainder of the evening went off without a hitch. The dinner was exquisite, the music was pleasant, ideas were being shared. It was a democratic dinner for the new democratic state.

About an hour and a half into the dinner, an attendant approached Team Avatar's table, whispering something in Korra's ear.

"I'll be right back," she said, standing and following the attendant, "Tenzin's trying to radio in from Republic City."

After a moment, Bolin spoke.

"Do you think it's serious?"

"Based on the way that messenger approached, I would say so." Jake said.

"How can you tell?" Mako asked.

"The pace at which he was walking was one of urgency. Slightly faster than normal, eyes locked on his target destination. However, he doesn't want to go to fast, as not to alert anyone else that something is going on. The discreet mannerisms are what give him away. If Korra returns to get us with the same urgency, my suspicions will be confirmed."

It wasn't Korra, but President Raiko and his security team that approached the table, a bead of sweat falling down his forehead.

"I need all of you to come with me right away." the president said, trying to catch his breath.

"What's going on?" Asami asked.

"I'll explain on the way."

The group all stood up, making their way towards the exit.

"Hey! Where are you guys going?" asked Wu, coming alongside the cluster. "The party's just getting started."

"Urgent business. I'll keep you in the loop Wu." Mako said.

"I understand. Thanks for the speech Jake. Sorry you had to throw it together at the last minute." Wu shouted after the group.

"Making stuff up is what I do best. Thanks for the invite." Jake yelled back.

They made their way out to the airship field. Lin Beifong was standing on the edge of the ramp to the Republic City Police Blimp that brought all of the delegates from Republic City to Ba Sing Se.

"The president and the Avatar are onboard. Let's move out." she hollered into her radio.

The time from when the collective of Republic City's most important delegates stepped onto the airfield to the time the ship was airborne was only about 45 seconds. Lin congratulated her crew on a successful Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation. "Nice NEO, everyone. Radio silence until we reach RC. Beifong out."

"Does someone want to fill us in on what the hell is going on?" Jake said irritably.

"This operation is strictly off the books. At least until we know for sure what we're dealing with." Lin replied.

"Which is?" Korra asked.

"We received a distress signal from a regiment of the United Republic's army. They were making sure there were no bandits on the roads. The call described a flash of blue light, then a series of small explosions. Just like that everyone was down. Most of the men are dead, but one of the men managed to get away with a wound in his shoulder. He's being treated in a hospital near Republic City."

"Tell them to sterilize the wound and keep him in as little pain as possible. If my suspicions are confirmed…" Jake looked out the window at the forest drenched in inky night, "Our situation just got a hell of a lot more complicated."

"What do you mean?" President Raiko said.

"It's the Panacea."


	8. Chapter 8

_**Sorry I haven't been uploading chapters for a while. So here's a nice long chapter. I probably won't have another chapter until the end of August or early September. For now, here's chapter 8 of The Luckiest.**_

* * *

It would be five more hours before the ship touched down at an airfield near Republic City. Most of the people onboard got some much needed sleep, but Jake was not among them. He'd grown used to not sleeping because of the Panacea. Now, they'd followed him to this new world. It made him sick to his stomach. More lives now rested on his shoulders than ever before. None of them could even grasp how much more danger they were in. He could grasp it.

It had been the last four years of his life, seeing the destructive force that they delivered ironically without prejudice. They preached equality, then slaughtered equally. Jake couldn't help but chuckle.

Finally, the captain of the airship got on the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our descent into Republic City. Local time is 3:27 a.m. Weather is clear and 14 degrees centigrade. Landing will be in approximately 5 minutes." Finally, Jake thought.

Korra and Asami awoke to the sound of the captain's announcement. They sat up in their bed, kissed good morning, and began to get ready.

"I really hope Jake's wrong." Korra said after a moment.

"About what?"

"This… Panacea group. From what he's told me, if we have to fight these guys, it'll be the toughest challenge we've ever faced."

"Well if it comes down to that, we'll face them together. Just like we always do." Asami pulled Korra in and kissed her. Korra was more than happy to return it. "Now, let's go." Asami said as she opened the door.

The group convened where they had the night before. Jake was still sitting in the windowsill where everyone had left him the night before, staring into the inky night, partially illuminated by the runway lights of the airship hanger complex.

"Did you sleep at all?" Bolin asked with a yawn.

"How can I? I'm so used to not sleeping it's becoming normal to me."

"Well you better not fall asleep on us now. You're the only one that knows what these Panacea punks are capable of." Lin said.

"That's something you won't have to worry about. I stayed up for seven straight days trying to build the portal that brought me here. Took till day six before I started hallucinating."

"What were you hallucinating about?" Bolin asked.

"I'd… rather not discuss it actually." Jake said with a sudden somber tone.

The group proceeded down the ramp of the airship, making their way towards a motorcade of Satomobiles, the president's personal fleet. The motorcade made its way to Piandao Memorial Hospital where a security team was waiting to transport the group to the hospital room where the injured soldier was being treated.

Making their way up to the fifth floor, they were met by the head doctor.

"I've never seen anything like this. We have no idea what could have caused this wound. We were able to extract a piece of shrapnel from his shoulder."

He proceeded to hold up a plastic bag with a small shell-shaped object covered in blood. Jake took it from the doctor and carefully examined it.

"Shit."

"What?" Mako asked. "What is it?"

"I highly doubt you've invented firearms, have you?"

Noticing the silence, Jake continued.

"This was fired from a gun, a weapon that propels objects like this by means of explosive force, typically making a loud, sharp noise, the small explosion the soldier described. This specifically is a bullet, cylindrical and pointed, it has gunpowder in its casing; gunpowder being made from Potassium Nitrate, Sulfur, and charcoal."

"Slow down, what is any of that stuff?" Korra asked.

"Potassium nitrate: a white crystalline salt, occurring naturally and produced synthetically, typically used in fertilizer, as a meat preservative, and as previously mentioned, one of the main components if gunpowder.

"Sulfur occurs uncombined in volcanic and sedimentary deposits, as well as being a constituent of many minerals and petroleum. It is normally a bright yellow crystalline solid, but several other allotropic forms can be made. Sulfur is an ingredient of gunpowder, and is used in making matches and as an antiseptic, substances that prevent the growth of disease-causing microorganisms, and fungicide, a chemical that destroys fungus.

"Charcoal is a porous black solid, consisting of an amorphous form of carbon, obtained as a residue when wood, bone, or other organic matter is heated in the absence of air, in other words, burned."

More silence ensued.

"Am I to believe that no one has an understanding of the elements apart from the four bendable ones?"

"We've known about charcoal and sulfur, but you're talking about combinations of chemicals that haven't been proven to even exist here." Asami said.

"Well they do exist, or else your soldier wouldn't be cooped up in a hospital with a mysterious wound in his shoulder. Can I see him?"

"Right this way." the doctor said.

They entered a small hospital room with a bed against the back wall. The soldier was asleep, probably as a result of the anesthesia, Jake thought. The group came in and stood on the left side of the soldier's bed, their backs to the door. Jake circled around and leaned in close to examine the wound.

"The wound started on his right shoulder, went through the top of the humerus, chipped the scapula, then was slowed by the muscles and nerves before stopping in the Subclavius muscle. The soldier has rather broad thick shoulders, which would explain why a bullet became lodged inside instead of going straight through." he mumbled out loud.

Jake was able to deduce that the shot was fired from the soldier's right side. He was almost able to figure out other things, but his thought process was disrupted when the soldier woke up.

"Hmm? Where am I?"

"Piandao Memorial Hospital. You're being treated for the wound you sustained earlier." Lin said.

"Oh yes. Right. Did… Did any of the other men make it?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Our… initial reports say that you're the only survivor. If anyone else lived, they were likely captured. We believe that we're facing a paramilitary organization known as the Panacea. They, and the weapons they fought you with, are not from this world. Jake, the guy with his finger in your shoulder, is from the same world. He's technically a fugitive from this group." Raiko said.

"Spirits," the soldier muttered under his breath. "All those men."

"What's your name?" Jake said

"Excuse me?" the soldier said.

"Your name."

"My name is Haruto. Oh Spirits, those men."

"Hey." Jake said to him, "None of this is on you, okay Haruto? We're almost 100% positive that its the Panacea, but I need you to see if you can recall anything. Any and all information is vital."

Haruto sat for a moment before turning back to Jake.

"I think I remember something. They sounded like they were speaking another language."

"I'm going to say some phrases. Let me know if they sound familiar." Jake said.

He began, "Открытый огонь.(Otkrytyy ogon'. Open Fire.) Да здравствует Панацею (Da zdravstvuyet Panatseyu. Hail the Panacea.) Да командующий Волков. (Da komanduyushchiy Volkov. Yes Commander Volkov.) Do any of those sound familiar?"

"Yes. All of them. I heard all of those phrases two or three times. That last one I heard a few times after the explosions stopped."

"It's them. That was Russian."

"Oh no," Asami gasped.

"I'm going to try something. I need your permission of course." Jake said to the soldier.

"What exactly do you need?"

"I need to put this in your ear." Jake pulled a case out of his backpack and removed a small earpiece.

"What will it do?"

"It will scan the brainwaves from your cerebrum, the part of the brain associated with memory. Whether you realize it or not, even if you were unconscious, your brain was still receiving input signals from outside stimuli, meaning that I can use this signals to recreate the incident."

"Ok. If it helps you in any way."

Jake proceeded to carefully place the earpiece into Haruto's ear. He closed the door, drew the curtains, and turned the lights off.

"Are the lights really necessary?" Lin asked.

"Yes. You'll see why in a second."

Jake set the case that held the earpiece on the floor of the hospital room and pressed down on the middle. It beeped twice and suddenly the room was flooded with blue light. Jake pulled a remote out of his bag and proceeded to tune the frequencies of the soldier's brain input.

"At what time did the attacks begin?"

"Roughly around 10 o'clock Republic City time." Lin said.

Jake tuned the remote even more and suddenly, a projection of the soldier appeared over the small case on the floor. He was standing upright walking with his gear in hand. The group was shocked at what they were seeing.

"What are you doing exactly?" Haruto asked.

"Projecting your brain's memory of the attack. If I tune this a little more, the rest of the stimuli your brain recorded should come up as well."

Suddenly, the room became filled with a recreation of the regiment. Haruto was about three-quarters of the way towards the back on the right side. The projected soldier faced away from the door of the hospital room, meaning that when the portal appeared, it would be behind the soldier's bed. Realizing this, Jake carefully rotated the case so that the opposite was true.

The room suddenly became brighter, as the projection of the Panacea portal came into view. Jake paused the projection.

"This is going to contain extreme depictions of violence. The likes of which none of you have witnessed. I'll have to play it in slow motion so I can get a sense of the fighting style. Am I clear to proceed?"

A moment of silence passed.

"Go," Korra said.

Nodding in her direction, he slowed down the projection and hit play. When the portal, which was significantly larger than Jake's, was finished opening, suddenly small booming noises were heard. The men around Haruto began to fall down, some of whom had splatters coming out of them. The projection of Haruto grabbed his shoulder and fell over as well.

"That's why your still alive." Jake said. "The thickness of your shoulder, combined with your tense-up, resulted in the bullet not going clean through."

Haruto nodded. He understood what was happening. Jake skipped about 30 seconds forward. All of the regiment were down, some of whom were still squirming on the ground. Then the force that defeated them stepped through the portal. They were dressed in heavy combat gear, which Jake immediately recognized as that of the Panacea. A tall man with a bald head and a thick frame stepped through last. Jake became visibly angry at the site of him.

"Volkov." he grumbled. His anger dissipated when a young woman stepped though the portal. She had shoulder length hair and a thin, yet strong looking physique. She was carrying a duffle bag and clipboard. Jake paused the projection

"Lucy?" he asked out loud.

"You know her?" Asami asked.

"We grew up together. She was one of the few people I would have trusted with anything. I thought she died when the Panacea destroyed Chicago, where we grew up. Now she's working as Volkov's number two."

His voice trailed off in disbelief. Asami realized that Jake and Lucy had a deeper connection than being old childhood acquaintances. They'd had a romantic relationship. Jake quickly composed himself and continued the projection. A wounded soldier came into frame crawling on the floor. Volkov grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him to a kneeling position, then stuck a gun to his temple.

"Where can I find a site to set up camp?" he said with a snarky tone in his voice. "My men and I are exhausted and we'd love some place to set up our equipment."

The soldier was too shocked to say anything. He gasped for breath, tears forming in his eyes.

"Oh well," Volkov said, pulling the trigger and spattering the inside of the soldier's head all over the ground. Asami quickly retreated into Korra's shoulder, not able to handle the sight. A blue-tinted image of Lucy cringed as Volkov executed his prisoner. The projection of the now dead soldier slumped to the ground. The projection went black.

"What happened?" Haruto asked in confusion.

"This must have been when you blacked out." Jake said, turning on the lights. Eyes winced as they readjusted to the light.

"So we are dealing with these Panacea people?" Lin said after a moment of silence.

"Yes." Jake said. "I don't know how many there are or what equipment they have, but they're here."

"What should we do about it?" Korra asked.

"For now, nothing." Jake said, an audible gasp coming from several of the room's occupants.

"How can you say such a thing? I've already lost nearly 100 soldiers because of these Panacea brutes? What's to stop me launching a counterattack." Raiko screamed.

"Common sense. With all due respect Mr. President, you have no idea what you're up against. That was 20 soldiers with basic weapons. Now imagine an army of fifty thousand with advanced weapons, ballistic explosives, and worst of all, the nuclear bomb. A weapon so powerful that it could wipe Republic City and its suburbs away in a matter of seconds. Millions dead instantly and without more than five minutes warning. Even less if they smuggle it into the city.

"The rules of war have now changed. Everything you thought you knew about evil is now obsolete. Launching a counterattack just puts a target on your back. I don't think your prepared to have the burden of the lives of millions of innocent men, women, and children on your back, are you Raiko? Because I don't think you are." Jake finished with a tinge of anger in his voice.

Raiko was shocked, his skin turning pale. Lin and Korra stood to his right with the same baffled expression on their faces. Asami placed her hand on Jake's shoulder. He calmed down almost instantly.

"Forgive me." he said. "I've seen too many people die at the hands of these guys to be objective about this."

He quickly ducked out of Haruto's room and proceeded down the hallway. Korra, Asami, Mako and Bolin went after him.

"Thank you for your service to the Republic, Haruto." Raiko said. "I'll make sure you receive top of the line care. It'll be of no cost to you."

"Thank you Mr. President."

Meanwhile, Jake was quickly making his way through the lobby of the hospital. The group pursuing him caught up in the hospital parking lot. The sun

"Jake, where are you going?" Bolin asked.

"I need to go somewhere quiet and think."

"Well at least explain what's going on here." Mako said.

Jake quickly turned around, stopping Mako in his tracks.

"I thought I gave you a pretty damn good explanation in there. Use that detective head you've got and see if you can figure out even a fraction of what is going on here."

"You don't think I have a clue?" Mako said, a hint of irritation in his voice. "I've been watching everything happening for the past 24 hours and it's concerning. You're right, I don't have the situation totally figured out, but I was only hoping you'd be able to help, seeing as you know the most about these guys of anybody here."

Jake's head suddenly flinched to the right. He had an idea. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Asami asked.

"You guys don't know anything about this situation, but I can figure out a way to teach you in such a way that we can counter the Panacea. We can fight back and maybe finish off these guys once and for all."

"How?" Bolin asked. "You said it yourself, we don't have the weaponry to counter them."

"Asami, how much aluminum, steel, and lead do you have?"

"Tons of it. Why do you ask?"

"We're building weapons. Then, we're building an army."


	9. Chapter 9

**Remember when I said I'd be back in September? Haha... *Nervous laughter***

**Anyway, to make up for that, here's a 2000 word chapter for you. I'll get back to writing this regularly now, school and writer's block have just been difficult. No promises on how often, but I'll update as often as I can. **

**Here's "The Luckiest: Chapter 9"**

* * *

It was 6:30 by the time they left the hospital. They quickly made their way to one of Asami's factories. It wasn't scheduled to open until about 10:30, plenty of time for Jake to work. Finding the materials he needed, he forged molds of the individual parts, then set about building his gun.

He listened to a small portable radio playing the music from his world. It made him miss the long nights with his inventions. He sometimes would work until 4:30 in the morning listening to everything from Beastie Boys to Elton John to Tchaikovsky. For now, all he could do was listen and work, just like he always did before.

He emerged around 10, music blaring, sweat dripping from his face. The smirk on his face indicated that he'd made the progress he was looking for. He had set up a few wooden targets, each roughly in the outline of a human. He pulled out the smallest of the weapons and explained:

"The universal self-loading pistol, or USP, is a rather efficient little weapon. Small, versatile, accurate, this little gun weighs in at just 1.7 pounds and can fire a 15-round cartridge in a matter of a few seconds. Accurate at a range of up to about 160 feet. Observe."

He turned towards the targets and lined up his shots.

"Oh, and you're going to want to cover your ears."

The group obliged and Jake quickly fired off 3 shots, each hitting a target. 3 perfect head-shots. He pulled the next weapon off the table.

"Meet the Barrett REC7. This sucker can hit at a larger effective range, between 1970 and 2600 feet. Weighing in at just over 6 pounds and holding 30 rounds per clip, this is the go to weapon for anybody in the field."

He repeated the feat, blowing larger holes in the wood targets at eye level. Setting the Barrett down, he picked up a larger weapon with a long, thin barrel and a scope.

"This baby is the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare, or as it's known in the field, the 'AWP'. Accurate at a range of 2610 feet, this sucker is the go-to sniper rifle for sharpshooters and military snipers alike. One body shot is enough for a kill. The scope on top makes it easier to aim down range. This sucker is loud so really plug your ears."

Again complying with his request, he rattled off a few shots the bolt-action rife that decimated his targets. Jake then set the weapon back on the table and turned to the group. They faced him with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

"What do those typically do to, you know, people?" Bolin asked.

"In the right place, an instant kill. In the wrong place, well, it can be debilitating… in several different ways."

"Why would you make something with its only purpose to be killing?" Korra asked.

"Guns have been around in my world for over 600 years. Plus, what's the purpose of a spear?"

"Hunting." Bolin said.

"Hunting. By definition, the killing of animals for food or sport. Unfortunately for us humans, we have a knack for killing things in brutal ways. Remind me to share some of the instruments of torture they created in my world."

"I think I'll pass." Bolin responded, clutching his stomach in disgust.

"Fair enough."

Jake went on to explain that there were more varieties of weapons in the warehouse and if they could be mass produced quickly enough, and with President Raiko's permission, they could get the army equipped and trained to fight back against the Panacea.

"I like this idea." Mako said. "If we get the backing of the Republic's army, we can at least slow down these guys."

"Something tells me we're going to want to hurry. My guess is that Volkov already knows a lot of things about the Republic. He probably has spies watching the President's every move. If we're going to tell him about this, we have to go now. They could be plotting something, and if I know Volkov, he likes to start with a bang." Jake said.

Nodding in agreement, Korra said, "Let's go."

Jake tucked the USP into his pocket and grabbed a backpack as the group ran to Asami's car. She quickly wrote a note and handed it to an assistant that was on scene. The car sped away from the facility making its way towards downtown. The radio roared to life as the voice of Shiro Shinobi came on.

"Breaking News," he said in his loud but composed voice. "After recent attacks, President Raiko has announced that the threat level has been raised to level 5, the highest rating, normally reserved for imminent enemy attack. Citizens are reminded to report suspicious activities to the Republic City Police Department. Stay safe folks, this is Shiro Shinobi signing off." The radio resumed playing jazz music.

"At least Raiko is aware that a threat exists." Asami said, checking the speedometer in the Satomobile as it ticked past 100 miles per hour.

"Is there any way we can contact somebody in the city? Maybe Chief Beifong?" Jake asked.

"I've got a 2-way radio right here. Beifong's frequency is 790 Hz."

Fiddling with the knobs, Korra tuned the radio to Beifong's channel.

"This better be important, Sato. I'm in the middle of reassigning 750 officers to deal with the threat level increase."

"Jake said there's reason to believe that the Panacea is planning to strike within Republic City soon, likely targeting President Raiko."

"Well, Raiko is in a meeting with his advisors on how to combat those militants. Besides, I've already assigned the top personnel to protect City Hall. What makes him so sure they're going to attack this soon?"

"Because, when they invaded my home country, within 24 hours, 500,000 people, including our President and his entire cabinet were dead." Jake said. "They're military brutes, wanting to exercise power as soon as it's available to them. If they get a sizable foothold, the war is lost before it even begins."

"I'll see what I can do to increase security. I just hope you're wrong, Wells."

"For both our sakes, I hope so too."

"Beifong out." The radio went to static. Asami, her eyes concentrated on the road, spoke up.

"I sent a memo with my assistant. Effective immediately, all Future Industries operations are suspended in order to focus on mass producing those weapons. All you're blueprints are being copied and distributed. My estimate, we can have 250,000 weapons with full ammunition in a matter 36 hours."

"Good. We'll need them. I just hope we aren't too late. Slow down once you get into town. We don't want people worrying or the Panacea being tipped off that we know something."

Arriving in downtown a few minutes later, they made their way to the plaza outside City Hall. Getting out of the Satomobile, the group began to walk towards the entrance. Suddenly, screams could be heard behind them and the sound of a fast approaching vehicle prompted them to turn around.

"Move!" Jake said as they ducked out of the way. The vehicle, a supply truck by the looks of it, was speeding down the center of the plaza, headed straight for the doors of City Hall.

"Shit," Jake said, "they're here."

The group ran after the truck, but it wasn't slowing as it approached the building. As it got closer to the entrance, people were running away from the truck. It drove up the steps and straight into the doors, breaking through them and into the lobby. Jake suddenly realized why.

"Get down! It's a bomb! Get do-!" A massive explosion ripped through the air, engulfing City Hall almost instantly. A shockwave sent the group flying backwards. The entire building was blown apart, sending debris scattering around the area.

Seconds felt like hours. The sky seemed to go dark as the explosion cast a shadow over the plaza. As Jake looked up at what was City Hall, he could see another truck slowing down in front of the debris. He saw several men getting out of the truck, each holding Soviet regulation AK-47s.

"Get up! We gotta move!" Jake said as he dragged Bolin up by his arm. As everyone else stood up, shots rang out from the men with the AK-47s, firing into a crowd of injured fleeing civilians. The soldiers turned their attention towards where Team Avatar stood and opened fire. Jake quickly pulled out his USP and fired shot back at the soldiers, dropping three in the process.

Suddenly, a chunk of the building that didn't collapse in the initial explosion began to crumble, causing the Panacea soldiers to flee. Seeing this as his chance, Jake sprinted about 50 yards to the bodies of the downed Panacea and grabbed 2 AK-47s, an AK-74, a Markov Pistol and a MP-443 Grach Yarygin Pistol, along with ammo to spare, putting them into his backpack.

Running back to the group, Jake tossed Mako and Bolin the AK-47s, Korra the Markov and Asami the MP, keeping the AK-74 for himself. They seemed confused and shocked.

"You realize we've never used these before, right?" Mako said.

"There's no time like the present to learn. Just aim at the thing you want to shoot at, squeeze the trigger and watch your enemy drop. We should have enough ammo, but we need to get to the police station as soon as possible. That's our safe house."

They ran in the direction of the police station, encountering no resistance along the way. Charging up to the doors of the building, they looked back and saw the pillar of smoke rising from where City Hall formerly stood, now just a smoldering pile of rubble.

They went inside to discover the station was in a state of pandemonium. Officers scrambling to organize rescue efforts, get information, and handle the massive influx of emergency calls.

"Korra, you and your team! In my office! Now!" Beifong yelled amidst the chaos. The group quickly obliged, weapons in tow.

The doors shut, Beifong let out an exasperated sigh as she leaned on her arm against the door, unable to face the group in her office for but a moment.

Turning slowly, she said, "How?"

There was silence.

"How in Spirit's name did they destroy City Hall?"

More silence. Beifong turned to Jake, a look of desperation in her eyes.

"My best guess is simple TNT. Trinitrotoluene, consisting of 6 parts Carbon, 2 parts Hydrogen, 3 parts Nitrous Oxide, and one part Methyl. Very volatile, and highly explosive. My guess is that about 2000 pounds of the stuff was packed into the back of that truck. The driver rammed the truck through the front door and activated the timer right before impact."

"I'm sending officers down there."

"I'd hold off for a while."

"And why would I do that? There could still be injured people on site!"

"The Panacea has troops down there and if you don't want your officers to end up like the troops on the road, I'd suggest we stop thinking with numbers and start thinking with strategy."

"Well what do you suggest then? I see that clearly you're the expert here." Beifong said with anger in her voice.

"The Republic cannot face the Panacea alone. If we can get the other nation's support, especially if we convince them that this is an international security threat, we should have an army large enough to counter the Panacea. Of course, we'll have to train them. Plus we need the weapons first. Kuvira's platinum mech is now insignificant in terms of the danger we're facing. We're facing annihilation as a species."

"Only the President has the authority to levy those actions." Bolin remarked.

"Well, the President isn't exactly in the best position at the moment. If he's even alive." Jake said

"We need confirmation on his status," Korra said. "That might entail having to go back to City Hall."

"If we can get a small team together, we might be able to go under the cover of darkness. Do you have a weapons training course?"

"Maybe not with the weapons you have, but the basement should be suffice."

"Gather your five best officers and meet me down there in 10 minutes." Jake said. "It's time for some training."


	10. Chapter 10

The training lasted about eight hours. Jake was surprised at how quickly everybody picked up on using the firearms. It was almost sundown when they went upstairs. Asami had gotten in contact with her assistant and they were able to smuggle in 300 rounds of ammunition for each of the rifles and 150 rounds for each of the pistols.

Jake checked a nearby clock. 8:45. He walked over to the group. 5 officers, Beifong, Korra, Asami, Mako, and Bolin

"As soon as this meeting is done, we're going through the sewers to City Hall." he explained with a map of the sewers in and around City Hall. "The maps indicate that there is a grate on the east side of the building that should be in tact, based on calculations I made based off of the data we've collected about the explosion. We'll sneak our way into the basement of City Hall and make our way to the President's office. He was holding a cabinet meeting to discuss security options in the wake of yesterday's attacks on soldiers outside of Republic City. The explosion detonated at approximately 11:45 a.m. Republic Standard Time.

"By the time we arrive, they will have been in that room for more than 10 hours without contact to the outside world, if they even survived. Surveillance gathered by officers on the scene tells us that the hallway in front of the President's Office collapsed in the explosion and the Panacea are trying to dig through it. Presumably, they've cleared out the rest of the building, so we'll need to hurry if we want to save anybody alive in that room. Understood?"

Nods and Yes's came the officers, as well as Team Avatar and Beifong.

"Then grab your gear and let's go ladies and gentlemen."

Within 35 minutes, they were making their way towards the grate Jake had mentioned. Carefully lifting the grate, Jake peered around in all directions. He could hear the noises of Panacea soldiers, but they were in front of City Hall, thus out of his vision.

"Clear." he said, motioning for the group of 10 to follow him. Lin bent a portion of the side wall out, giving them access to the basement. Gathering themselves, they made their way to a nearby stairwell.

"Stay on alert. They could be anywhere." Lin said as they made their way upstairs. Mako peered out into the hallway. The left side of the hallway, about 5 feet from the door was a solid wall of rubble. The right side was clear, the smell of smoke lingered in the air. He could see the door to the President's Office.

"All clear." Mako said, as the group proceeded to the door of the office. Carefully opening it, they saw the bodies of several members of the cabinet, blood pooling around their lifeless corpses. Jake checked one of the bodies.

"No bullet holes, that means they haven't broken through yet." Jake looked to see that portions of the left wall had been blown out, some in sizable chunks which were on the right side of the room.

"The shockwave and the debris worked in tandem here." he said lowering his weapon to his waist.

"I found the President. He's still breathing, but only" one of the officers said.

Gathering by the officer they saw Raiko huddled under his desk, unconscious. Jake carefully crouched and checked him.

"He's showing signs of major internal bleeding." he said, showing them dark red spots on his stomach, pools of blood that had accumulated in his body. "He doesn't have very long. 20 minutes at the most." he turned back towards the group, still in a crouch. "Even the most skilled doctor can't save him."

"So… th… that's how it is then?" the President stammered. Jake quickly turned to face the President. "This… is how it ends."

"There has to be something we can do!" Lin said.

"There isn't. I'm… sorry Mr. President." Jake said.

Raiko sighed, straining to turn his head and face the group.

"Thank you for coming back." he said with a cough, blood beginning to streak from the corner of his mouth. "Defend the Republic, whatever the cost may be."

"You have my word, sir." Lin said. She and the other officers saluted.

"At ease. There's so much… chaos. Treat this world kindly Wells. It needs it. Let the other leaders know, now is the time to come together." He looked at Korra.

"I know you and I have never been on the same page, Avatar Korra. I'll admit that I've been very argumentative and contentious with you. That's my own fault and I apologize. I let my own… ego get in the way of helping you do what was necessary to protect the world. In that respect, I failed. But the world needs you now. Whether they realize it or not, they'll always need you. Remember that."

"I will." Korra said, a tear running free down her cheek. Asami put a hand on her shoulder.

"So this is death… A little underwhelming if you ask me." he smiled and let out a chuckle. His chest rose and fell three more times before finally stopping.

President Raiko was dead.


	11. Chapter 11

The return to the Police Station was completely quiet. No one dared to break the silence. Only the scraping sounds of feet against the ground filled the dark, damp, smelly tunnels of Republic City's sewers. It was almost surreal. The entirety of the Republic's leadership were either dead or missing. The Republic was in more danger than it had ever been.

The station was still in a frenzy when the group of eleven returned. Lin called an emergency meeting of all officers and personnel. She invited Jake to brief everyone on the situation.

Standing on a desk that he'd pulled in front of Lin's office door, he addressed the crowd.

"There's no easy way to say this," Jake began, "but the President is dead." Gasps and whispering began in the crowd.

"I know there are a lot of questions about what the next step is. None of the leadership of the Republic are known to have survived, meaning that this country is without a governmental power structure. However, that doesn't mean that the Republic has been dissolved. I'll be hosting a call with the other world leaders to brief them on the situation and figure out what the next move should be. I'll also be giving a speech over emergency radio to all the citizens in the Republic and hopefully the world.

"It is now our duty to protect the Republic. President Raiko gave us this task as his dying wish. I sure as hell am not going to break it. I need all of you to stand with us as we move forward. Who's with us?"

The crowd was silent and unmoving. Then, an officer stood up.

"The Republic has been my home my entire life. I'd give my life to defend it. I stand with you."

One by one, other officers stood up and joined in, each saying, "I stand with you."

"For the Republic!" Lin yelled as the crowd roared in applause and cheering.

Later in Lin's office, Asami and Lin were busy setting up the radios to receive the signals from both Water Tribes, the Fire Nation Capital and Ba Sing Se.

"Jake can sure give a speech." Asami said after a moment.

"Yes he can. That's what makes me worry." Lin said.

"What do you mean?"

"Something about him. It just seems off. Like he's not everything he seems."

"He hasn't given any reason for me to be suspicious."

"Well, I'd keep an eye on him if I were you. I don't think he's told you everything about himself that he should have."

Korra walked in, followed by Mako, Bolin, and Jake.

"Is everything ready?" Korra asked.

"Just about. I just need the frequencies to tune to." Asami responded

Lin fetched a booklet from her desk, handing it to Asami. It contained the frequencies of the radios of all the world leaders. Within 15 minutes, Ba Sing Se, both Water Tribes and the Fire Nation Capital were connected. Jake checked the world clocks in the main workroom. It was 10:46 pm in Republic City and the Water Tribes, 8:46 pm in the Fire Nation Capitol, and 12:46 am in Ba Sing Se. Wu was drowsy when he got on the line.

"Forgive me if I sound out of it. The delegates have been debating with a lot of fervency and it's been exhausting." he said.

"Not a problem. Is everyone here?" Lin asked

First Tonraq, followed by Wu, Fire Lord Izumi, and finally Desna and Eska confirmed.

"Ok. At 11:45 am Republic Standard Time, the Republic was attacked by a terrorist group known as the Panacea. They are not of this world, rather from another dimension. Jake Wells, with whom Wu is already acquainted, is from that world and an enemy of the Panacea. I'll let him explain what happened."

"Thank you Chief Beifong. First off, let me thank you for joining this call on such short notice. As the Chief mentioned, this morning a truck containing 2000 pounds of explosives drove through the front door of City Hall and detonated. The resulting explosion decimated the City Hall campus and, unfortunately, killed President Raiko and all members of his Cabinet."

"Oh Spirits." Tonraq said. "How many others?"

"At this point, we don't know. I would hazard a guess in the thousands but the Panacea still has control of the area around City Hall and we don't have the weapons to counter 's where we'd need everyone's support."

"So that's what this is about. You want another war." Izumi said. "I won't drag my country through another war."

"With all due respect Firelord Izumi, if the Panacea wins, there won't be a country left for you to defend. They sure as hell won't stop with the Republic. This is an international threat. The Panacea has killed nearly two-and-a-half billion people in the span of five years. What makes you think they'd simply stop because you chose not to throw your hat in the ring?"

There was a chilling silence. Izumi eventually spoke, this time with a certain timidity in her voice.

"Just how dangerous are they?"

"They've likely killed thousands in the Republic in a span of 24 hours. That's with their most basic weapons. If they get some of their more advanced technology here, I fear that number will be in the billions. Keep in mind that there are over 450 million in the Earth States alone, 50 million of whom live in Ba Sing Se. That looks like one hell of a target to a paramilitary group like the Panacea."

"Not to mention, it's not that difficult to learn about the delegates convention there." Korra said. "Jake mentioned that our written language is also in his world. The country where the Panacea came from borders the country with that language It's not unreasonable to assume that someone in that army knows it."

"How large of a force would we be dealing with?" Tonraq asked.

"They have over 5 million active troops, 500,000 of which are special forces. I don't know how many they would allocate to an invasion of this type, but even if they bring 10% of their troops, which might be lowballing, that's 500,000 troops, all of whom know more about military strategy than anybody in this world, along with 50,000 special forces, the deadliest fighters from my world."

"How would we go about training a force to counter them?" Desna finally asked.

"I can get in contact with the Beifongs in Zoufu and see if they'd be willing to use the countryside as a training ground." Wu said.

"I've got all of my factories working around the clock trying to produce arms to counter the group. I'll send a memo to my factories to send them to Zoufu if we get the all clear." said Asami.

"Now the question remains. How much are you willing to do to save the world?"

"We can send 20,000 troops." Eska said.

"I can send 25,000." Tonraq said.

"I can send 200,000." Wu said.

After a moment, Izumi said, "I can send 100,000."

"345,000 troops is a good start. Should we all set up recruiting initiatives?" Tonraq asked.

"That sounds like a good idea." Wu said. "I had a survey done about a week ago that said that 5% of people not in the military would join should a war break out."

"That's quite a substantial number. Roughly 2,250,000 potential members of the armed services is nothing to shake your head at. Of course, that's all dependent on a few other factors, but even if 1% would follow through, that would be valuable." Jake said.

"So, will we want to meet in person to finalize details?" Izumi asked.

"I think that the further away from each other the leaders are physically, the better. Think of the chaos that would ensue if the Panacea took out all the world's leaders at once." Korra said.

"We'll still need to stay in contact. It wouldn't be good if we were simply throwing around troops blind." Desna said.

"Once we evacuate to Zoufu then we'll set up communications once again. Until then, nothing of this meeting goes public. If we want to keep ourselves one step ahead of the Panacea, this needs to be kept in the utmost secrecy."

The other leaders agreed.

"I'd recommend leaving your capital cities if at all possible. It's very likely Republic City was just the first in a wave of attacks. Your safety is top priority. Lin, do you know the frequency of Zoufu's communication?"

"1520 kHz is the international signal."

"Alright. Oh, one more thing before we wrap up. Would it be at all possible if I could use everyone's national radio broadcasts to relay the news? I can hopefully use it to garner some support."

The leaders agreed to let Jake use their radio frequencies to broadcast what was happening. 10:00 am RST was when the signal would go live. When the broadcast ended, the world was once again at war.


	12. Chapter 12

City Hall remained a smoldering mess the next morning. Korra and Asami had spent the night apart from one another, so as not to attract any unnecessary attention. The situation was heated as it was, there was no need to stoke the coals any more than was required. Jake however, once again, didn't sleep.

"Did you stare at City Hall all night?" Bolin asked. Jake nodded.

"At one point, I went to a nearby rooftop and counted all the bodies I could see."

"How… How many did you get too?"

"1,986. Plus the seven we found in the President's office, the President himself, and my estimate of how many people were inside City Hall puts me at around 2,250." Jake said, a distance in his voice. Pain ached with every word he spoke. Bolin could tell he was blaming himself for what happened.

"Spirits." Bolin's voice trailed off in disbelief.

Asami was listening to their conversation, a mixture of sadness, disbelief, and anger coursing through her veins. She wasn't really sure how she was supposed to feel. She couldn't really blame Jake for what had happened, as the odds of him ending up here in the first place were so slender. It was the Panacea's fault anyway, she told herself.

Jake removed himself from his perch in the windowsill as if he were an 80-year-old man, aching and groaning as he strained to move. He stammered into the next room making his way to the radio unit where he would deliver his address. In just moments, he had to tell billions of people that their peace was shattered, that all they'd worked for since the 100-Year War was once again at risk of being destroyed. A thousand sad songs had rung through his head in the night, each more melancholy and despondent than its predecessor. One in particular had stood out.

Hello Darkness, my old friend

I've come to talk to you again

Because a vision, softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the Sound of Silence

He'd sung the opening stanza of the Simon &amp; Garfunkel tune about a hundred times in the night. For whatever reason, the words just… fit. He rubbed his hands along his worn face, feeling where the stubble was growing in, rough as sandpaper. He glanced at the crowd that huddled around him, waiting for him to begin.

"Are we ready?" he asked.

"Tech wise, we're ready. You go on the red light." Asami replied.

Jake stared at the light, waiting for the moment when the circuit would complete, illuminating the room with its ominous red glare. As the clock clicked, signifying the hourly change, the tenth of the day, the light turned on. Jake took a breath and began.

"Citizens of the world. My name is Jake Wells. If you're fortunate to be outside of the confines of Republic City, I'm sure you're very confused. If you live here in Republic City, you're living with a different kind of confusion. I'm going to give you facts as they pertain to this situation.

"Yesterday, at approximately 11:45 am, Republic Standard Time, a terrorist group known as The Panacea detonated an explosive device loaded into the back of a truck that they slammed into the front door of City Hall. The ensuing explosion, as well as the combat teams that were sent in to murder survivors, have killed, by our best estimates, over 2,250 people, including the President of the Republic, President Raiko, and his entire cabinet, who were all in a meeting at the time of the explosion.

"As of 10:18 pm Republic Standard Time, when the President was pronounced dead of internal bleeding and other causes by myself, the Republic is officially without leadership. I do not intend on becoming a leader in this manner. For now, the Republic is in a temporary lockdown and after the situation has been resolved, the citizens of the Republic will have free and open elections to choose their next leaders.

"I plan on speaking to other world leaders in the future on how to best combat this threat. I hope that we can come to some sort of arrangement that would bring this conflict to a close as soon as possible."

Jake had intentionally sown this into his speech, hoping that the Panacea would fall for his deception and scan the radio waves for a meeting that had already occurred. He knew they'd be listening. The whole world was listening.

"So, where do we go from here? The Panacea are no normal threat. They are evil, cunning, deceptive and smart. They've fought more wars, they've got superior technology to anything in this world, they've got better tactics, and most importantly, they've got a determination to destroy as much as they can. It seems like an impossible challenge, but consider this. "If you listened to my speech at the delegate's meeting a few nights ago, you'll know that I'm a quote guy. I love them. Here's one to consider before you admit defeat to these Panacea thugs. 'All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.' Thomas Jefferson said that. I know that name has no bearing here, but Jefferson was one of the founders of my home country, a country built on the idea that anybody, no matter their background could succeed with a little elbow grease and a willing attitude. It's an ideal that people have fought and died for because defending everyone's right to liberty is as important as fighting for everyone's right to live, it carries a significant weight to it.

"There's an old song where I'm from. The lyrics might be of some use. It's called Light of a Clear, Blue Morning.

"It's been a long dark night

And I've been waiting for the morning

It's been a long hard fight

But I see a brand new day a'dawning

I've been looking for the sunshine

'Cause I ain't seen it in so long

Everything's gonna work out fine

Everything's gonna be all right, it's gonna be ok.

"I can see the light of a clear, blue morning

I can see the light of a brand new day

I can see the light of a clear, blue morning

Everything's gonna be all right, it's gonna be ok

"My advice for now? Hold your loved ones tight, don't take moments for granted. You never truly know how precious those moments can be until you can't experience them anymore. If you are of able body and mind, consider enlisting. Be a hero, not just to your family, but to your country and to the world. We need help. Not just the Republic, but the world. This is the chance for unification that this world has been wanting for so long. This is the chance to stand up and say that even though we are five nations, each with their own history, their own scars, and their own stories, we are one world, shaped by all its residents. We never surrender in the face of tyranny, we fight until there is nothing left in our bodies, and then we fight even more. Join that fight, we need you. Thank you."

The light on the console turned off. Jake laid his head in his arms and sighed. Team Avatar each put a hand on Jake's shoulder to try to comfort him. The weight of everything that had ever happened to him suddenly hit him. For the first time in nearly five years, tears escaped from Jake's eyes. There was no sound in the radio room with the exception of the static from the radios and the occasional sniffle from Jake. He did nothing to try and stop the tears. He just sat there and cried. It was the only thing he could do.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry for being gone for so long. Writer's block can be such a pain for a story like this. Here's a nice long 2600 word chapter to tide you over in the meantime.**

**Enjoy Chapter 13 of The Luckiest.**

* * *

Three unendurable days had passed. Supplies were running low, morale was down, and infighting had begun. Three more sleepless nights for Jake. International forces began to amass in Zoufu.

Team Avatar, Jake, Lin and 14 other officers and staff were still in the Police Station. They'd been debating whether they would try to escape the city and get to Zoufu or lead the offensive against the Panacea from within Republic City. Jake, Asami and Korra were in favor of leaving, while the rest wanted to stay and fight.

"It's suicide to try and escape." Lin said, trying to sway the three. "They have the whole city on lockdown. Were we to leave, we'd be sentencing the citizens of this city to unimaginable consequences. If we could hold out here for a few days, the coalition forces will descend on Republic City with the weapons and training manuals Jake and Asami sent to Zoufu. Jake was able to train my officers in a matter of hours."

"That was a ragtag group of five officers Chief, no offense to them. Not an army of what I would guess will total about half a million." Asami rebutted.

"Besides," Jake added, "We'd have to teach them a whole new fighting style. Precise military formations won't work anymore. The key is to have you forces spread out in a certain area to keep the enemy aiming in several directions at once. Urban warfare is a whole new animal."

Lin thought for a moment.

"Do you honestly think this is the best option? There wouldn't be any other alternative?"

"To stay here is to guarantee our deaths." Jake said.

"Ok. How are we getting out of here then?"

Jake came up with a plan of using the sewers, similar to how they got to City Hall, but with a new step. The airfield was on the northwest side of the city, across the bay from downtown. The intel they had suggested that the Panacea didn't have control of the airfield. There was a port near the arena that would have a boat. However, the Panacea were likely in control of that port.

They'd have to strike in broad daylight, because any additional time would give the Panacea an opportunity to seize the airfield. Jake speculated that a cache of weapons and ammo was likely set up at the port, meaning that the nine soldiers without weapons would then be armed.

They would then steal a boat, arrive at the airfield and take an experimental cargo plane that Asami had stored in a private hanger. She showed a photo of the plane. Jake thought of it as a AC-130. There would be enough room in the cargo hold for the whole of the party.

With all 20 members of the group briefed and ready, they made their way down to the sewers. Following a map of the city streets, Jake led the group to the same sewer where a few years earlier, Team Avatar had hidden when the Equalists took over Republic City. Jake told the group to halt. He motioned for Korra, Mako, and Bolin to follow him. The four peered around the corner and examined the port. There were about 15 Panacea soldiers, all armed with AK's. A large yacht sat along the pier.

"That's our target." Jake said.

Jake pulled the three aside and together they came up with a plan. The group split, with Korra, Mako, and Bolin emerging from the sewers and Jake flanking. Mako clutched his side pretending to be injured, his arm draped around Korra's shoulder. As they approached the group of soldiers, Jake walked to street level to see two guards at the port entrance, about 25 feet from the pier, a truck parked along the dock. He sat on a bench directly across the street, a trench coat masking his other-worldly clothing. He clutched the handle of the USP in his pocket and waited for the signal.

A soldier noticed the group of three coming towards them.

"What do you want? This area is restricted," he said. A noticeably American accent, Jake noted, as his position was well within earshot. Bastards must have been recruiting. Carefully crossing his leg to conceal his hands, he drew his USP and fastened a silencer. Any second now.

"It's my brother," Bolin said, "He was injured by some robbers." Appeal to whatever humanity he has left, Jake thought. The soldier stood for a moment, unsure of what to do. He peered over his shoulder to another soldier that had come over. The latter shrugged.

"Alright, let me take a look."

As the soldier leaned in to examine the "wound", Mako moved his hand from his side, shooting a pillar of fire right into the soldier. The second raised his weapon, only to be knocked backwards by a chunk of concrete thrown by Bolin.

"Perfect timing," Jake said as he stood up, dropping the guards with two quick shots to the head. Korra removed her Markov from her waist and dispatched two more soldiers. Six down, nine to go.

Making his way to the gate, he saw four soldiers taking cover behind the truck and carefully rattled off a few shots, downing three and wounding the fourth in the leg. He grabbed an AK-47 from one of the downed soldiers at the gate and moved into the port. The wounded soldier attempted to turn his gun on Jake, but a quick volley of shots finished him off. Ten down, five to go. The remaining five were scattered along the pier, taking shots at the group of three. Bolin raised a wall to protect them as Korra shot back.

Jake rushed to the downed soldiers at the truck. He found an empty wine bottle, a gas siphon and an old rag in the back of the truck. A little unconventional, but it will have to do. Carefully, he moved to the side of the truck, unscrewed the fuel cap and placed the siphon into the gas tank. He was out of the soldier's line of site for now, but he had to act fast.

He pulled on the pump a few times and gas began to flow. He quickly put the wine bottle up to the flowing gas. He quickly plugged the pump and put the rag in the top of the bottle. Homemade Molotov Cocktail, Jake thought.

He checked the pockets of the dead soldiers and found a lighter. Flicking the lever, he lit the end of the rag. He ran out from behind cover and threw the Molotov at the soldiers. The flames managed to get three of the soldiers and Jake had no problem dropping the other two.

"Clear!" Jake called out and the whole group emerged from the sewers. "What do we have in the back of that truck?"

The crates were full of weapons and grenades, as well as bulletproof armor and helmets.

"Jackpot," Jake said. They loaded the crates onto the boat and set off. As the boat pulled out, Jake chucked a grenade at the truck. The fuel that had leaked onto the ground was ignited by the grenade going off and the truck erupted into a fireball.

"Anything you can destroy that they own hurts them," he said as he took a seat. All 20 members of the group were now armed with AK's, Pistols, and ammo to spare. Asami's hanger was relatively close to the shore, so getting to the plane quickly was top priority.

Suddenly, a loud swooshing sound came from the main island. Jake turned to see a bright orange streak flying through the air, headed straight for them.

"Shit! Incoming rocket fire!"

"What does that mean?"

Jake turned Asami in her seat so she could see the incoming rocket.

"Oh Spirits!" Asami quickly pulled the boat hard to starboard. Fortunately for them, the boat, despite it's large size, was very agile. More rockets shot up from downtown, prompting Asami to steer very wildly. Some of the rockets missed by only a matter of feet.

They were only about 50 yards from the shore. Asami decided to run the boat aground. With a jerk, the boat went from 25 knots (about 29 mph/47 kph) to zero in a matter of seconds, causing everyone to fly forward. Another rocket was coming straight for the immobile vessel.

"Get off the boat!" Korra shouted. People piled over the side of the boat, but the rocket struck before everyone got off. Lin turned back in horror to see that 8 of her officers were still on the boat. Shit, Jake thought. The remaining group sprinted to the hanger, weapons drawn. Asami quickly got the hanger's door open and everyone loaded into the cargo hold. Asami and Jake sat in the cockpit of the plane.

Asami started the engine and began to pull the plane out of hanger. Just then, trucks were seen driving towards the airstrip.

"Goddamn it, they're here." Jake cursed under his breath. "I hope this thing can pull off a quick takeoff."

"We'll see," Asami with a nervous expression plastered on her face. She grabbed the intercom and relayed a message to the people in the cargo hold. "Hang on back there. This is gonna be rough."

Asami turned the plane and angled it down the runway. Quickly shifting into gear, the plane accelerated down the runway at breakneck speed. The Panacea soldiers got out of their trucks and began firing at the plane.

"Has the plane even take off this quickly?" Jake asked.

"Um… I suppose we'll find out." Asami said.

As the plane slowly began to lift off the ground, Asami pulled back on the controls and the plane gained altitude rapidly. Explosions went off beside the plane.

"Damn it, rocket launchers." Jake said. Suddenly, the plane lurched. One must have hit. Jake staggered to the cockpit door and opened it. The plane was struggling to stay stable. The cockpit door led directly into the cargo hold. When he got the door open, the back hatch, where cargo would have been loaded, had taken damage and was only being held on by the cables some of Lin's officers.

The bottom of the door blew off the back of the plane without warning, sending four of the last six officers out of the back of the plane.

"Fuck!" Jake shouted in shock. Lin's expression was one of horror. She'd never seen so many of her officers die so quickly. Before the Panacea, officer deaths were few and far between. Now, of the 14 officers that left the station with Team Avatar, Lin and Jake, only two remained.

Another explosion rocked the plane, killing one of the engines. Jake rushed back into the cockpit. Asami was struggling to keep the plane under control.

"Have you tested crashing this?" Jake asked.

"Wasn't exactly on the top of my list of priorities. You think you could put this down?" Asami responded.

"This is a pretty primitive version of a plane we have in my world. I should be able to figure."

Jake assumed control from the co-pilot's seat and angled the plane towards the ocean. They'd been heading south, following the coast.

"Brace for impact," Jake called over the intercom. Asami took the mic.

"Korra, there's an inflatable lifeboat on the left side of the cargo area. It should be marked in a red box. The engine for it should be in there too. As soon as we impact, get the boat inflated get it out of the plane with everyone on it." Asami said.

A moment later, Bolin got on the relay. "We got it."

He aimed the nose directly at the water at roughly a 45 degree angle. As they got close to the water, Jake angled the nose of the plane so it was just 10 degrees. Right before impact, Jake flicked the nose so the plane was angled upwards. The tail splashed down first, causing the nose to splash down a second later. Unfortunately, it splashed a little harder than Jake wanted. Jake heard a scream.

Asami was grabbing at her lower leg. Jake suddenly saw why. Part of the cockpit's outer shell had crumbled from the force of the impact, causing Asami's left ankle to be caught.

The boat's engine roared to life. It drove around to the front of the plane, waiting for Jake and Asami. Jake was busy trying to free Asami's ankle. Every attempt to move it only made Asami scream in pain more. Jake felt the plane sinking from back to front. He only had a matter of seconds to figure something out.

"Asami?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, you're not gonna like me after this." Jake adjusted his weight and stomped on Asami's leg as hard as he could. Asami screamed. Jake quickly checked. Her lower shin was broken, just as Jake planned. The added flexibility of her leg allowed him wriggle her ankle out. The plane was almost vertical and the water was filing the plane, now waist deep in the cockpit. Taking Asami's right arm over his shoulder, he pulled out his USP and fired a few shots through the windshield of the plane.

The glass shattered and as the water rose up, Jake and Asami were able to float out. They were briefly pulled under, but they were able to get back to the surface quickly. Asami sniveled as salt water went into the wounds.

Mako and Bolin hoisted Asami into the boat with Jake following close behind. Jake immediately rolled up Asami's left pant leg, carefully removed her shoe and sock, and examined the ankle. Apart from Jake's intentional fracture, Asami's ankle and three of her toes were broken. The cuts from the metal were bleeding profusely.

Jake grabbed the first aid kit from the side of the raft. He pushed the shin bone back into place, making Asami scream. Korra let Asami squeeze her had. Seeing as he didn't have a tourniquet, he began to rip gauze and wrapped it just above the fracture. I pulled as tightly as it would go, causing Asami to whimper. Rummaging though the kit, he found a shock blanket. Folding it up, he carefully set Asami's ankle on top of it, propping the sides up Asami's shoes. It's a rough splint, Jake thought, but it'll have to do.

"Korra, I need some ice." Korra reached down and scooped up a handful of water, which instantly froze. She handed the ice to Jake, who set the ice on top of the fracture. "Keeps it from swelling." Jake had Korra prop Asami's head on her lap and carefully positioned her so that her legs were immobilized, but up at a slight angle. Jake explained that this was to keep her from going into shock from oxygen deprivation.

Korra carefully removed Asami's jacket and set it over her. The boat kept traveling south. For several hours, they followed the coastline. They eventually came to a small fishing village about 75 miles south of Republic City. Jake bartered with the local merchants for some supplies to get them through the night. He improved Asami's makeshift splint and tourniquet and re-iced her fracture.

Lin was able to radio to Zoufu and speak to Su. She said that if they could hold out for the night, then a convoy would pick them up in the early morning. They would arrive at approximately 3:30 a.m. Jake was able to convince the manager of the local inn to let the group stay the night free of charge. For now, all they could hope for was that things would be better in the morning.


	14. Chapter 14

**I apologize for the long wait. I've been so bogged down with school activities and writer's block. Tell you what. I'll make it up. Here's a 2,600 word chapter to tide you over. I've already gotten leeway into the next chapter. It's gonna pick up from here.**

**Also, fair warning, there are parts of this chapter that get pretty heavy. So if you have any problems with extreme violence, tread lightly.**

* * *

With the obvious exception of Asami, each of the remaining group members took shifts watching for any suspicious activity. Earlier in the evening, Jake had alluded to the fact that the Panacea potentially had ways of tracking them.

The town where they were staying didn't have a formal name per say. It had gained its fame in legends from the days of Avatar Aang. The story went that Aang once tried to barter for a waterbending scroll and that Katara ended up stealing it from a group of pirates, who chased the old Team Avatar up the Earth Kingdom coast. It's also alleged that after the fall of Ba Sing Se towards the end of the Hundred Year War, Team Avatar had commandeered a Fire Nation ship and stopped in this port town to resupply.

Jake had the final watch. Fishing through his army backpack, he was relieved to find that one of his most prized possessions remained functioning. An old iPod that he hooked up to a small radio, the same one he'd used in Asami's warehouse. The last remnants of music from the old world.

It was the largest of the sizes (240 GB) and held over 40,000 songs and 100 hours of video (movies, television shows, news broadcasts, etc). In addition to this he had a terabyte hard drive with more pictures and videos on it, about 700 hours of video and 93,000 pictures in total. He also had a computer tower with software for photo and video editors, animation, web design, various computer games, and more. It also contained millions of pdf files for learning languages, many famous pieces of literature, and documents for learning history, math, space, physics, and many other topics.

These were all that remained of things in Jake's world before the Panacea took over. Most of this work was destroyed after the coup, as the Panacea attempted to purge all the history that came before them. Seeing the iPod in his hand reminded him what was at stake. This world had even more history than his. To see it destroyed would be just as bad, if not worse than watching the destruction of his world.

Suddenly, he heard an engine. He turned to see a truck pulling up to the inn, its right side facing the street. Jake checked his watch. 3:24 am. A driver and a passenger got out and introduced themselves as members of the Zoufu extraction team. Lin walked out of the inn and examined the two men.

"Do you have Su's note?" Lin asked.

"Right here," the passenger replied handing Lin a sheet of paper.

Lin examined the paper. It was simply a coordinate list and Su's signature.

"These guys are our ride. I had Su write a note with something only the two of us would understand."

"Smart. May I inquire what?" Jake asked.

It's the coordinates of Piandao Memorial Hospital. Su and I were both born there."

"Good idea. Extra verification is always a benefit. Let's get everyone ready."

Everyone was loaded with the exception of Asami, who was being hoisted into the truck. Just then, a young man came running up to the group.

"Help! Please help!" he shouted. "They're destroying everything!"

"Who?" Lin asked.

"I don't know, but they're destroying my family's farm. We live about a mile up the road. Please, they killed my father I don't know what they're doing to my mother and sister!"

A single shot rang out and the the man fell, a wound in his back. Jake looked up to see headlights approaching. The street in front of the inn was lit up, so as the trucks stopped, Jake was quickly able to spot the Panacea's logo. Red letters with a white boarder, Панацея.

Shots rang out from the car and one of the Zoufu guards fell over. The final two officers scrambled out of the back of the truck and returned fire, one getting gunned down almost instantly. Jake ran around to the back of the truck, grabbed an AK, and took cover behind the truck. The driver scrambled to try and get back behind the truck.

Inside the truck, everyone was pressed against the floor as a hail of bullets whizzed over their heads. Korra bent a hole in the floor and carefully dropped out of the bottom of the truck. She took cover next to Jake.

"What's the plan?" she asked.

"I don't know." he replied. The last officer suddenly yelled in pain and fell to the ground. He had been shot in the left temple, the wound clearly visible to Korra and Jake. Korra was too shocked to move. Jake simply bowed his head in sadness and frustration. He turned to Korra.

"Do you think you could give me covering fire?" he asked. Korra didn't move. She was staring at the wound on the officer's head. She'd never seen anything so gruesome in her life. It was a shock as she'd fought so many enemies over the years. It never got to this level of violence. It made her sick to her stomach.

And Jake? He seemed calm. He seemed used to it. It's a sight no one should be subjected to even once, let alone enough times to become used to it, desensitized to it. How does he stay sane seeing things like this?

"KORRA?!" Jake yelled. He shook her shoulder, bringing her back to reality. "Can you give me some covering fire? I need to get a better angle."

"Ya… Go! I've got you covered." she stammered in reply. She aimed around the side of the truck and fired at the black trucks. Jake made his way back into the inn.

The innkeeper had been awoken by the chaos and cut Jake off in the hallway.

"What's going on?" he asked worriedly.

"You need to stay inside and take cover. The thugs that took over Republic City are here."

"Oh Spirits, why?"

"I promise we'll get this sorted when this is all over. For now just stay safe." Jake said. The innkeeper nodded and retreated back to his room.

He ran up to the second floor and reached into his bag. He kept the components that made up his AWP in a special case. He assembled the AWP, attached the scope and aimed towards the Panacea troops. He rattled off shot after shot, changing his location with each shot.

After a few minutes, the shooting quieted down. Jake made his way to the back of the truck. He changed out his AWP for his AK and made his way to the Panacea's trucks. None of the Panacea troops were alive. Jake brought a handful of weapons over to the Zoufu truck. Everyone inside the truck, Asami, Mako, Bolin, and Lin were uninjured, as was Korra. The only casualties were the remaining two officers, the man that ran up and warned them of the Panacea, and the passenger from the Zoufu truck. 16 Panacea soldiers were also dead.

Jake said he would trail the Zoufu truck in one of the Panacea trucks.

"Why?" asked Bolin.

"I figured it would be better for the engineers designing the vehicles to be able to use an actual example of what they're building."

With that, Jake checked his watch. 3:48 am. Jesus, Jake thought, can't believe this lasted that long. The young man that had been killed was taken by local medics to the nearby hospital. Jake went up the block to the local mortuary. He got three coffins, one for the Zoufu escort and two for the remaining officers. He also bought two United Republic flags. Lin said that there was a Zoufu flag in the truck.

"Why do you need flags anyway?" Mako asked.

"Where I'm from, it's customary to have a flag over the coffin of a fallen soldier or police officer. It's a symbol of respect and gratitude for their service to their country. I'll be damned if anybody else doesn't get that respect and gratitude."

They carefully loaded the three fallen into their respective coffins. The flags were placed in full over the coffins. The coffins were then carefully loaded into the truck.

The rough ceremony over, everyone loaded into their respective trucks. Korra wanted to ride with Jake to talk about things. Asami wanted to come along. They carefully got Asami over to the other truck and positioned her ankle so it was supported. Korra took the passenger seat and Asami took the middle seat.

The first 45 minutes of the drive were silent, Asami leaning her head on Korra's shoulder. The truck was equipped with an aux cord, so Jake plugged in the iPod and slower music. One particular song caught Korra's attention. Imagine by John Lennon.

_Imagine there's no heaven_

_It's easy if you try_

_No hell below us_

_Above us only sky_

_Imagine all the people_

_living for today, ah_

_Imagine there's no countries_

_It isn't hard to do_

_Nothing to kill or die for_

_And no religion too_

_Imagine all the people_

_living life in peace, you_

_You may say I'm a dreamer_

_But I'm not the only one_

_I hope someday you'll join us_

_And the world would be as one_

_Imagine no possessions_

_I wonder if you can_

_No need for greed or hunger_

_A brotherhood of man_

_Imagine all the people_

_Sharing all the world, you_

_You may say I'm a dreamer_

_But I'm not the only one_

_I hope someday you'll join us_

_And the world will live as one_

"Man," Korra said as the song changed, "If only it were that simple."

"Believe me, nothing would make me happier." Jake replied.

There was a brief pause, but then Korra said, "Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"How many people have you watched die?"

Jake tensed up in his seat. He hated this question.

"More than I could ever hope to count. I've watched millions die but I've probably seen it up close about 60 times."

"Jeez," Korra said under her breath.

"I'd imagine you've seen it quite a few times. Being the avatar and having to stop world conflict has to have come with its cost."

"Not like tonight. That's the first time I've been right next to someone when it happened." Korra's voice was somber. Tonight had affected her more then she thought it would.

"Believe me, this won't be the last time. Even if you don't see it during conflict, you're bound to be there when a friend dies, or a loved one, or a family member. Plus, you'll obviously be there when you die. There's just too much life and too many things that can end it for you to avoid it entirely."

"It just sucks, you know?" Asami said. "It sucks to deal with, it sucks to try and bounce back from losing someone. My father died a little over a month ago and I'm still dealing with it. My mother died when I was a little girl and still dealing with that."

"I'm reminded of Steve Jobs." Jake said with almost a slight chuckle. "He was an inventor and a businessman from my world. He had this whole monologue about death.

"'No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is a destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

"'Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"'Your time is limited, so don't wast it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.'"

"Wow." Korra said. "That was beautiful. People from your world were so smart."

"And to think that 10,000 years ago, we had just discovered that if you rub two sticks together just right, it makes fire. And that just maybe, it's not a good idea to try and pet a wild animal with sharp teeth."

"Man, 10,000 years ago was around the start of the Avatar cycle. Avatar Wan had learned to master the four elements and civilization was already well established."

"All of our evolution really occurred in the past 4,000 years or so. It increased a lot over the past 600 years and grew exponentially in the past 150 or so. Perhaps here it's more gradual."

"I suspect that it's going to grow exponentially if you share all of the information you have." Asami said.

"True. Part of me wants you to figure certain things out on your own, but that's some old Prime Directive thinking right there."

"Prime Directive?"

"There was an old TV show, sort of like a mini-mover you could watch at home, called Star Trek. It followed the interstellar adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise, an exploration vessel of a 23rd-century interstellar "United Federation of Planets". The Prime Directive prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the internal development of alien civilizations. Basically, you can't mess with the evolution of the culture of another world.

"'Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its 5-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.'"

"I wish I could watch a show like that." Korra said. "It sounds like it would be so cool."

"I have both Star Trek, and Star Trek: The Next Generation on my computer drive. After this is over, I'll introduce you guys to some of the best programming my world ever produced. Great movies like The Godfather, Gone With the Wind, Spirited Away, The Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List. Great TV shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Friends, Cowboy Bebop, House of Cards. There's so much I want to show you guys."

"I don't know about you, Korra, but I'm looking forward to all of that." Asami said.

"Me too. Let's try to get some sleep. We've got a lot of work ahead of us." Korra replied.

The girls drifted off to sleep, leaving Jake with his thoughts. With three coffins visible in the back of the truck in front of him, be began to think about the number of deaths that could happen in the next few weeks, the next few months, the next few years if, God forbid, this conflict lasted that long. How many families are going to be pulled apart? How many lives are going to be destroyed? How many soldiers will they make flags for, have funeral services for? How many mothers and fathers will lose their children?

It made Jake dread coming here. Nearly 2,500 people have died in a matter of three days because of him. Even if he didn't pull the trigger, the Panacea would never have found this world if he hadn't found it first. The consequences of his actions would be defined within the next few weeks. How bad they would be remained to be seen.


	15. Chapter 15

**Apologies for the delay. I broke my collarbone a few weeks ago and it really slowed down my writing. With that out of the way, enjoy _The Luckiest_ Chapter 15.**

* * *

The drive to Zoufu would last another 17 hours, though about 12 were navigating out of the Republic. Seeing as basic services were disabled nationwide, the flood of refugees, along with the lack of a central international highway made it impossible to get out of the Republic efficiently.

Once they arrived in the Earth States, they found a main road that would take them to Zoufu. If Kuvira could be credited with one thing, she brought the former Earth Empire up to date from a transportation perspective, even if it was through forced labor. The highway was virtually abandoned. Jake called the three way CB radio set up between the Panacea truck, the Zoufu truck, and the back of the truck.

"If the roads are going to be this clear, we might as well speed it up a bit. We're traveling with the Avatar and the Chief of Police of Republic City to Zoufu on a matter of international security. I think they can forgive us for speeding."

"Just remember I don't have any authority here, kid." Lin replied.

"Your sister runs the place where we're going. Your family must be really dysfunctional if your sister won't forgive your convoy for trying to save the world." he replied sarcastically.

"Don't get me started smartass." Lin replied with a chuckle. Jake couldn't help but laugh as well.

Averaging about 100 miles an hour the remainder of the trip, they reached Zoufu around 8:45 pm. Su greeted the trucks as they pulled up to the main palace. She was confused to see only one member of her intel team get out of the truck. Lin flashed her a look of concern. She motioned toward the back of the truck. Su gasped and covered her mouth as soon as she saw the three coffins. She sat in shock for a moment.

"It was just a simple extraction mission." she said weakly.

"We were ambushed. They'd been following us."

"Spirits." Su was too shocked to say anything else.

"Unfortunately, they aren't the only ones we've lost." Lin said solemnly. "We were a group of 20 when we left the police station."

Su and Lin hugged as the coffins were carefully taken to the medical center. They would be treated and then placed in the center atrium of the palace. They would stay there in a state memorial until they could be buried properly. With the help of the Beifong sisters, the first three documented casualties of the conflict had been identified:

Li Wei, Male, Age 31, Senior Intelligence Officer, Zoufu Intelligence Services, Married, 2 Sons, Ages 14 and 10

Zhang Xiu Ying, Female, Age 27, Officer, Republic City Police Department

Wang Chao, Male, Age 35, Sargent, Republic City Police Department, Married, 2 daughters, Ages 9 and 7, 1 son, Age 3

The evening was fairly somber. Services for the three would be held the next day. There would be a meeting for all personnel in the evening. Training would formally begin in two days. Mako and Asami would continue with rehabilitation until they were healthy enough for combat, though Mako was expected to be battle ready within the week. Asami however would take close to a month.

Mock cities were set up in the countryside, meant to replicate the urban conditions in which they would be fighting. Over the next several weeks, Jake led several crash courses in weapon use, maintenance, urban combat, call signs, communications training, and first aid. Within a month, 485,000 of 570,000 troops were battle ready. The elite of this group were selected for special operations training. All matters pertaining to the mission were filed under the codename Operation: Recovery.

As time went on, SpecOps teams were dispatched as intelligence gathering teams. The information they brought back would prove itself invaluable. The Panacea had taken over downtown and were using the park as their staging ground. Rioting and looting were prevalent among surviving residents of the city. The window of opportunity was closing.

The coalition's respective leaders had decided that the members of Team Avatar, Jake, and the Beifongs were to be high raking officials in this army. Jake and Korra were selected as Four Star Generals, Lin, Asami, and Bolin as Three Star Lieutenant Generals, and Mako and Su as Two Star Major Generals. The Uniforms were designed with the same camouflage design, but with different colors depending on their country of origin.

The United Republic's soldiers (who had fled and regrouped in Zoufu following Jake's transmission) were dressed in a brownish uniform [**A/N**: See FÉLIN uniforms]. The Fire Nation was dressed in red. [**A/N**: See Valentino Camo uniforms] The Earth States dressed in green. [**A/N**: See US Army uniforms] The Water Tribes dressed in blue. [**A/N**: See US Navy uniforms]

Korra and Asami finally decided to tell everyone about their relationship. Though some were shocked at first, everyone was happy for them.

Finally, after two months of training, they were ready. AC-130s and APC's would carry the troops to Republic City. They would occupy the train station and use that as their base of operations with top brass and the top SpecOps on Air Temple Island.

The strategic benefit was that they were positioned in such a way that they were triangulated with Avatar Korra Park. The plan was to take certain key positions, such as the airport and the harbor. They would also retake City Hall as more of a symbolic victory.

They would occupy their respective bases at night and would establish communications between them. This was objective #1. Jake, Korra, Team Avatar, Lin and Su were aboard an AC-130, along with 20 SpecOps troops and ten crates of supplies. They were the Air Temple Island team.

"ETA to drop, two minutes," the pilot said into Jake's comlink. The plan was to parachute to Air Temple Island, dubbed Alpha Tango, from an altitude of 10 clicks. [10 km or about 6.2 miles]

"Acknowledged." Jake said in response. "Look alive ladies and gentlemen. Two minutes until we drop from this bird. At 30 seconds to drop, we put the oxygen masks on and at 15, the back hatch will open. On my signal we go two at a time with three seconds in between pairs. Send down the crates and set the timers on the automatic parachutes to 90 seconds. We should land in the vicinity of Alpha Tango. Guide yourself in when necessary. Hook up your comlinks now. Korra, you're on first jump with me."

"Anything to be concerned about?" Mako asked.

"Trust me, you'll be fine. Once you experience dropping nine and a half clicks in two and a half minutes, you'll so desperately want to do it again."

"Speak for yourself." Bolin said with a nervous chuckle.

Suddenly, a red rotating light began to go off.

"Masks on people. Radio silence till we reach Alpha Tango. See you down there."

The back hatch began to open, the inky black night and clouds all they could see. With a new moon in the sky, there was very little to illuminate the darkness. The city lights were in front of the plane so they would be able to get a gauge of distance once they broke the cloud layer. Everyone activated the night vision that Jake had installed on their goggles.

"Five, four three, two, one, go!" the pilot said into Jake's comlink. With the countdown, Jake looked at Korra and gave the signal. The two ran down the ramp and jumped, spreading their arms and legs. Within 15 seconds, they were traveling at terminal velocity [54 m/s or 125 mph]. The overcast skies would restrict their view until they broke the cloud layer.

Sure enough, the clouds were soon above them and they got their first glance of the city. The main area of notice was of course Avatar Korra Park, where the Panacea had installed massive floodlights to prevent nighttime attacks. Very few of the lights in the city were running. Suddenly, directly below them, a small red light appeared. It was a flare lit by someone on Air Temple Island.

They continued their descent towards the red flare for about two more minutes. Jake had designed their goggles to have a Heads Up Display, or HUD for short, that would notify them of different things. A small red notice popped up to notify them that they were within parachute distance of the ground. Jake and Korra pulled their respective cords and their chutes opened like clockwork. They carefully glided towards Air Temple Island. Jake looked up to see that all personnel had opened their chutes.

Within five minutes, everyone had landed and was accounted for. The man that shot the flare came forward.

"Nice flight, I presume?" he said.

"Good to see you made it General Iroh," Jake said as he shook the military man's hand.

"Nearly didn't. The currents in that bay nearly pulled me under. I've been here for nearly a day. I trust you brought supplies."

"Nah. 27 people just dropped from an airplane to start fighting in a war and all we brought were sack lunches." Jake replied with a smirk.

"Your humorous spirit is certainly welcome." Iroh chuckled. The crew set about converting Air Temple Island into a Headquarters, utilizing the upper floors as a communications relay, the kitchen and dining room as a mess hall, and the bedrooms as bunks.

The next hour was dedicated to establishing contact with the second base at the train station. The ground team had taken the station with relative ease, not suffering any casualties, capturing six Panacea soldiers, and killing the remainder of the squad in a firefight. According to the head of the battalion, the Panacea troops were unable to relay back to base. However, the Panacea would notice their absence. They agreed to transfer the prisoners back to Air Temple Island.

Jake called everyone into the mess hall. He divided the 28 people into two groups. Jake, Korra, Lin and Asami would stay on Air Temple Island along with 10 SpecOps forces, while the Su, Iroh, Mako and Bolin would lead the remaining SpecOps forces to the train station to have formal leadership on the ground.

The station forces would leave immediately, taking an inflatable raft. They arrived at the train station 45 minutes later, radioing back to to Air Temple Island. Everyone bunked up for the night, preparing for the battle that would start tomorrow. With the firefight that happened at the train station, the war had officially begun.


End file.
